Canes and stray cats, but also injured foxes, inappetent roosters, infected lambs, fractured birds of prey, elderly horses to support, turtles to stitch up: Monica Pais and Paolo Briguglioa couple in life and at work, try “to save everyone”, as they explain in the trailer. Because “this is what vets do, even the most assholes.” It is dedicated to this couple of passionate doctors and their irresistible patients, more and less wild the documentary Other animals, in theaters in January 2025. Directed by the journalist and documentary maker Guido Votano, it is set under the skies of Sardinia and in the Duemari clinic of excellence, the largest veterinary facility on the island. And it is a documentary and engaging immersion behind the scenes of a special job: the dream of many children that “when I grow up I will be a veterinarian”.
The poster of Guido Votano’s film “Altri animali” (press office)
The trailer of the film Other animalsset in the Duemari veterinary clinic, in Sardinia
Monica Pais and Paolo Briguglio have been together since university. They have two different characters but both indomitable, at least as much as the domestic and wild fauna which they put their hands on every day inside their veterinary clinic in Oristano. The doors of their emergency room are open to everyone, even those without owners. Between medical visits, vaccines, sterilizations, emergency interventions, the two veterinarians, aided by ten young colleagues full of energy, also work to find a home to strays.
Monica Pais and Paolo Briguglio veterinarians serving all animals: domestic, stray and wild
Guido Votano (Totò’s Night2003, Best Italian documentary at the Turin Film Festival, e Other Eyes2005, Best Documentary at the Levante Film Festival) filmed their work inside and outside the veterinary clinic. With a careful eye on the patients’ point of view, even the wildest ones, to tell the story of a much-loved profession that has changed greatly due to the arrival of technology and specializations. But also for the growing empathy that people feel towards the animal world.
Professionalism and humanity
The Duemari clinic has twenty years of activity behind it and is one of the most famous and important centers of excellence from both a professional and human point of view. It is in fact unique in its kind, in that offers assistance not only to private individuals but also to all stray animals that have been injured, run over or sick. Almost two hundred animals are rescued and cared for each year and found for adoption. Also thanks to the clinic social pages and thanks for Effetto Palla, the non-profit organization born seven years ago dedicated to the dog found with a noose strangling her neck and saved. An experience to which Monica Pais has dedicated the book, already in its third reprint, Ball. Story of the dog that changed my life (2024).
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