During an interview Checco Zalone spoke about Tolo Tolo, revealing that the character of Oumar actually existed and is not the result of his imagination.
During a 2019 interview related to the promotional tour of Tolo Tolo, Checco Zalone is back to talk about the film and the role of Oumar, played in the film by Soulemayne Sylla, revealing that in the writing phase he drew inspiration from a real-life character.
During the meeting with the press Luca Medici, aka Checco Zalone, spoke about the character of Oumar, a boy who lives in Africa and who knows Italian Neorealism, Pasolini and the French novelists. “He really existed, he is a friend of Virzì who unfortunately died“said Zalone.
“He was a Senegalese boy in love with our cinema who was a friend of Virzì. Paolo shot a doc and I saw it, I was moved“continued the actor.”He was in love with Italian culture, with Totò, and for this very reason Virzì had decided to shoot a documentary with him“.
The initial idea of creating Tolo Tolo was precisely by Paolo Virzì, who contacted Checco Zalone to work on the project with him. During the writing of the script it became evident that most of the film was born from the ideas of Medici, so it was decided to entrust the direction to the Apulian comedian, with Virzì credited as co-writer.