No Dogs or Italians Allowed

In Italian Piedmont lies the mountain village of Ugheterra. Everyone who once lived there bore the same surname: Ughetto. So did the grandparents of French director/animation filmmaker Alain Ughetto. His grandmother Cesira tells him about a life full of hardship with her husband Luigi, which was nevertheless dominated by the hope of better times.

In the late 19th century, Luigi, the second-oldest son from a family of 12, left for France and Switzerland with his brothers in search of work. While working on the construction of the Simplon tunnel, connecting Italy and Switzerland, he met Cesira. The two married, returned to the village and had many children. But life was hard; poverty and war brought hunger, fear and uncertainty, Eventually the family decided to emigrate, like so many Italians at the time.

This lovingly animated ode to the resilience of its (grand)parents won the European Film Award for best European Animated Feature Film.