Claudia Tosi: Mr. Beau

Claudia Tosi shared her brilliant, engaging film “I Had a Dream” with the viewers of Magnificent Seven 2019, but at the same time she herself was inspired by the great Hedy Honigman’s film “Buddy”. So, from this festival she brought a new dream to Italy, a dream about an unusual journey, about discovering the ways to reach someone you love and who loves you unconditionally.

This is an unusual and unexpected story about the friendship between a golden retriever named Beau and his human friend Claudia. Claudia wonders if the tacitly acknowledged fact that a dog has to adapt to a human it lives with is actually an unfair misconception. She decides to ask herself questions – who is my dog, what does he want, what is his nature? In a moment of concern for Beau’s life, Claudia decides to do everything in her power to learn how to communicate better with him and how to understand his character, his personality and his needs. Together, they embark on a journey to achieve this goal through a series of different adventures – scientific experiments, various experiences in nature, meeting with dog trainers and practicing exciting “dog sports”. The extremely intertwined flows of the film gradually build an intense feeling of empathy with the main character. Through this unusual, uncertain, revealing process, with the camera as an accomplice to the events, Claudia gets to know Beau more and more, leading both herself and us viewers to more complex questions about the place of man in the animal world and the importance of replacing the desire to dominate with the need for understanding. Claudia Tosi, the author of the film, testifies about her experience as the protagonist – she reveals that our pets give us the ability to rediscover the child in us, perhaps the best and most harmless part of our nature.

A magnificently playful modern documentary introduces us to a game in which, the more we enjoy and have fun, the more we discover surprisingly deep and ennobling knowledge about the world and ourselves. 

Italy, Germany 2024 
83 minutes 

Share your love
Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

Articles: 3930