Ozi – Voice of the Forest comes out in Italian cinemas this week, September 19.  The producer is Leonardo Di Caprio and the director Tim Harper.  It’s a children’s movie – but for adults too – which allows the cry of the earth, especially the cry of deforestation, to be heard.

Ozi is not the first animation to bring ecology and care of our common home to our attention; there was epic Avatar, 2009, delightful Wall-E, 2008 or much earlier Nausicaa – Valley of the Wind, 1984, by maestro film director Hayao Miyazaki.  Yet, alongside these three jewels of cinematography, Ozi is equally enjoyable and convincing, in how it confronts this controversial issue, above all for a children’s audience, but also the grown-ups who watch it with them!

Ozi, a young orangutan and her parents live happily in the rain forest, perfectly in harmony with their surroundings, until one day they become separated by a terrible forest fire, without any way of knowing what has happened to the other. (Not by chance a giant bulldozer enters the scene, almost certainly the cause of the fire).

Rescued by the owners of a wildlife sanctuary, she is taken in with other young, orphaned animals in a similar plight.  Thanks to her brilliant intelligence, they are able to teach her sign language.  She has a natural flair social media too!

Things suddenly change when Ozi learns that her parents might still be alive.  She leaves her safe little corner of the world, with two unusual but loveable companions, on a quest to find them, only to discover on the difficult journey that her beloved rainforest is being ravaged by exploitation.

Ozi eventually finds her parents and other creatures, living in a sort of artificial compound which a large company is using to advertise itself, with images that do not correspond to the reality of their conditions.

The little heroine manages to hug her mummy and daddy, but thanks to her courage, awareness and perseverance combined with her talent for social media, she denounces this plundering world and, more subtly, any speculation around the pursuit of personal interests, especially financial, relating to the environment, so fundamental to our future. The large brand uses the natural world to disguise and further its own gains with its commercial behaviour, savagely exploiting our common home, whose integrity is vital for every form of life including human life.

In comparison with the three films mentioned earlier, Ozi-Voice of the Forest, adopts a language that is more clearly aimed at children: with its simple structure, suspense but also tender and humorous moments, light-hearted, amusing, culminating in the victory of the little heroine and her band of friends.

It is precisely its simple and clear message that makes Ozi so suitable as a means to deepen our knowledge of the fundamental issue concerning the safeguarding of our planet.  Particularly aimed at children, it is also a good reminder for adults, questioning children and adults alike, about the hypocrisy and superficiality, let alone the indifference, we may have towards the environment.

One of the human adults in the film, bluntly accuses Ozi of  ‘whining’ when she tries to make TV viewers aware of the situation; sadly, it that can all too easily take root in our hearts because it is uncomfortable to admit that our common home is suffering and that a change is needed which obliges us to commit to taking greater responsibility on a daily basis.

Leonardo Di Caprio is not new to producing films about the strain which the Earth endures. at the hands of humans.  In 2016 he made the powerful documentary ‘Before the Flood’, in which he interviews and dialogues with influential figures on the world stage, on the climate change that is wounding the planet.  In 2007, he wrote and narrated his own documentary ‘The Eleventh Hour’, on the urgency to change direction if we wish to have a sustainable future.

This time, the American Oscar-winning actor, delivers a film that is less harsh, highlighting the issue without dealing a blow, but completely worthy of being an instrument of dialogue between generations concerning the care of what Ozi herself refers to many times as her “home”, our common home as Pope Francis would say.  That space which is a gift entrusted to us for the purpose of life, that needs our constant protection, because without it, we cease to exist; without it, and it beautiful forests, we would not be here.