‘Children of the Monkey’ Venice Review: A Sensitive Portrait of Parental Conflict

The relationship between a father and his disabled son is explored with subtlety and intelligence in this Italian drama centered on Dario (Riccardo Scamarcio), whose son Enrico (Andrea Aggio) suffers from a severe neurological condition that requires constant care from both him and his wife, Ginevra (Lidiya Liberman). A seemingly kind and devoted family man, Dario looks after his son with patience and affection, tending to his many daily needs. At first glance, there doesn’t appear to be any obvious conflict.

Gradually, however, another narrative thread emerges that shifts the film’s focus. Dario’s 13-year-old nephew, Giacomo (Tancredi Naldini), begins to gravitate toward interests Dario has never really been able to share with his own son: a passion for motorcycles and girls. Since Giacomo doesn’t fully connect with his own father, Roberto (Fausto Russo Alesi) —Dario’s brother, with whom he has an occasionally strained relationship, compounded by the fact that they both work in their father’s family business— he turns instead to his uncle, with whom he shares an easy rapport. And when Dario restores an old racing motorcycle and gives it to Giacomo, the boy suddenly becomes a much bigger presence in his life.

At first, this doesn’t seem to affect Dario’s relationship with either his son or his wife. But little by little, a subtle distance begins to emerge. He continues to fulfill his responsibilities as a father, yet it’s increasingly clear that his attention is elsewhere, that he’s simply going through the routines, obligations, and commitments he’s always had. Eventually, his wife begins to notice. His growing investment in Giacomo’s life also starts to affect, albeit indirectly at first, his relationship with his brother and sister-in-law, who soon realize that their son would rather spend time with his uncle and listen to his advice than to theirs.

Children of the Monkey —a curious title that refers to one of Aesop’s fables about a monkey facing a metaphorically similar dilemma— focuses primarily on Dario as an increasingly complicated emotional conflict unfolds around him. The film centers on the uncomfortable position he creates for himself by growing closer to a boy who doesn’t face the challenges his own son does: in many ways, the son he had always imagined having. As that emotional shift deepens, Dario gradually neglects the needs of his own family, putting at risk the fragile balance that has held them together.

Landucci’s film is a classic bourgeois drama that succeeds in getting inside the mind of a deeply complicated protagonist. Rather than judging Dario —or at least not entirely— it tries to understand him, even as his choices become increasingly damaging both to himself and to those around him. Convinced that he can devote himself to his nephew without neglecting his son, Dario fails to realize that not only his attention but even his affection seems to be drifting from one child to the other. And once he recognizes what’s happening, he finds himself trapped in an emotional situation he can no longer control.

The film is remarkably realistic in its portrayal of parents raising a disabled child. It depicts them as loving and responsible while also acknowledging that a part of them inevitably wishes they didn’t have to face such a difficult reality. Beyond Dario’s central conflict, however, the narrative becomes somewhat diffuse. It introduces several secondary storylines —the brothers’ work in the family business, aspects of Giacomo’s own life, and even a health issue affecting Dario— that remain underdeveloped in favor of the film’s main emotional arc. But Landucci’s real concern lies with his protagonist’s dilemma, and in that respect, Children of the Monkey is both deeply felt and impressively sensitive in the way it explores his painful emotional predicament.