Mondocane (Blu-ray Review)

Alessandro Celli’s directorial feature debut Mondocane takes its title from the mild Italian profanity ‘mondo cane’ which literally translates to dog world or doggish world. It is also an allusion to the 1962 Italian mondo documentary film Mondo Cane.

Set in the near future, the world is a dystopian nightmare in environmental ruin. On the southern coast of Italy there’s a futuristic town called futuristic town called Taranto, surrounded by barbed wire and inhabited by violent gangs. Two 13-year-old friends, Mondocane (Dennis Protopapa) and Pisciasotto (Giuliano Soprano) dream of escaping to a better life. They get away to an even more violent enclave called Anthill controlled by the dangerous leader of the Ants gang and their friendship begins to splinter.

Celli’s film is a lot of style over substance, infusing lots of influences from the genre including Mad Max or even recent films like Mandy. The use of light and color probably gives the film most of its strength. There is no denying this is a gorgeous looking production, from the shadows, the use of reds, and oranges, mixture of earth tones to infuse that sense of heat or hell works extraordinarily well. That said, the heart of the film is the friendship between Mondocane and Pisciasotto and their journey is an interesting even if not very surprising one. The two young actors, however, are definitely talents to keep an eye on, as is director Celli.

Mondocane (2021)

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The Video

Mondocane arrives on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber in a 2.39:1 AVC 1080p encodement. The film’s palette is very stylish, showing a lot of warmth, lots of reds. Daytime outdoor scenes have a very warm light blues and earth tones. The details are crisp, the image is clean and filmic, while shadow detail is exceptional. There is nothing to complain about with this transfer.

The Audio

The original Italian soundtrack is provided in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. This is a very enjoyable mix that is full of subtle atmospheric sounds, the ambient score from Federico Bisozzi and Tomat, and lavish ambience. Dialogue comes through full and clear, and in the action sequences where there is fire or gunfire those effects come through realistically and with good low end and midrange hit and clarity.

The Supplements

There isn’t much of note here. The “making of” is just a very brief montage of behind-the-scenes footage and snippets of cast and crew, plus we get the theatrical trailer.

• The Making of Mondocane (1080p; 00:06:21)
• Trailer (1080p)

The Final Assessment

This gorgeous dystopian thriller couldn’t be presented better than it is on this gorgeous Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. The film is a strong if not wholly original feature debut from Celli, but I would recommend this to anyone who likes dystopian sci-fi films like Mad Max or Escape From New York.

Mondocane is out on Blu-ray on July 12, 2022 from Kino Lorber

• Rating Certificate: NR
• Studios & Distributors: Groenlandia | Minerva Pictures | Rai Cinema | Regione Lazio | Regione Puglia | Kino Lorber (2021)
• Director: Alessandro Celli
• Written By: Alessandro Celli | Antonio Leotti
• Run Time: 116 Mins.
• Street Date: 12 July 2022
• Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
• Video Format: AVC 1080p
• Primary Audio: Italian DTS-HD MA 5.1
• Secondary Audio: Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo
• Subtitles: English