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Ivo, de ongeautoriseerde biografie van een gorilla

Short documentary, 2007, 53 min.

The situation is precarious for the number of gorillas living in the wild worldwide. To preserve the species from becoming extinct, all hope is placed in the reproduction of congeners living in zoos. In Europe, there are more than four hundred of the latter, a number the zoos hope to maintain. Ivo is one of the males scheduled to produce offspring.
As a baby, his mother rejected him in Munich, which is why a zookeeper took care of him at her home in the first weeks. After Munich, he stayed in zoos in Tenerife, Amsterdam and Berlin. Ivo never produced any progeny. He did collect hordes of female fans, who follow him around Europe, filming and drawing him.
This biopic examines the track record of a gorilla that has a hard time settling in with his own species. Zookeeper Reimon tries his best to put Ivo 'to work'. Meanwhile, we also get to know his fans and caretakers in the four zoos where Ivo stayed over the past years. Together with their stories, photographs, archive and recent footage of Ivo and his (female) admirers present an intriguing portrait.

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