No Dogs or Italians Allowed (original title: Interdit aux chiens et aux Italiens) is a 2022 Belgian-French-Italian-Portuguese-Swiss claymation film directed by Alain Ughetto.
Ughetto explores the past of his Italian grandparents as they struggled to make a living in the mountainous region of Piedmont and later decided to migrate to France. He recalls his conversations with his grandmother Cesira, who tells him all that she and his grandfather Luigi had to endure in order to secure a decent lifestyle for their family.
Tropes:
- Age Cut: Some of the child characters will suddenly be replaced with adult models of themselves in one scene, to signal their aging and time skips.
- Bribe Backfire: As foreman, Luigi occasionally gets prospective workers who try to bribe him into giving them a job, but he's too honest to go for that. One tries giving him a rabbit, leading to Luigi calling him out for it and sending him away.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Alain's father Vincent isn't impressed by his son's talent for animation, believing that the arts aren't for a family like theirs.
- Immigrant Patriotism: Two fascist nuns come knocking at the Ughettos' door with propaganda, arguing that they owe Mussolini their loyalty since he gives them bread to eat. Luigi coldly shoots back that the only country he recalls ever feeding him is France.
- An Immigrant's Tale: It's the story of an Italian family that decides to move to France after WWI in order to improve their lot.
- Klatchian Coffee: Cesira's coffee is noted to be extremely powerful, which makes it just perfect for the peasants who have to go work hard first thing in the morning.
- Market-Based Title: In Italy the film is called Manodopera (meaning workforce, labor or manpower), whereas most everywhere else it's a direct translation of the French title. Perhaps it was feared Italians would take offense.
- Naturalized Name: When the Ughettos become naturalized French citizens, Nino discovers his name was officially changed to Gerard and is so shocked that he falls off a tree.
- Obfuscating Insanity: After one of the Ughettos kills a fascist for raping their friend, two other fascists come to Ughettera to investigate. The Ughettos and their friends behave in outlandish ways to convince the fascists they're all insane so the two are driven away.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Luigi and Cesira outlive two of their children, Ida and Nino (although they die in adult age), mainly because they can't afford medical care.
- Poverty Food: The Ughettos eat a lot of polenta (a type of cornmeal associated with the lower classes) with milk, because they can't afford much else.
- Rape and Revenge: A fascist barges into Luisa's house and rapes her. He gets killed by one of the Ughettos in response.
- La Résistance: During WWII, Vincent joins the French resistance, which his battle-scarred father Luigi isn't a fan of. At one point, Vincent needs to hide in the house from the Nazis, putting the whole family in great danger.
- Title Drop: The Ughettos run into a sign at a restaurant forbidding Italians and dogs from entering, which is the movie's title. Luigi comes up with a fictitious interpretation of the sign (paraphrasing, "it's so dogs don't bite us Italians") so his younger kids don't get traumatized by the real meaning.
- War Is Hell: Luigi and his brothers Antonio and Giuseppe get drafted to fight in the Italo-Turkish war (which happened from 1911 to 1912) and then in WWI. The conditions they endure are miserable and Luigi literally calls war a hell in a letter to Cesira. On top of that, the wars cost him his brothers, since Antonio dies in the former and Giuseppe dies in the latter.
