Eight mountains ★★★½
Drama (2022)
Director: Felix van Groningen, Charlotte Vandermis
Interpretations: Luca Marinelli, Alessandro Borghi

“We explored how memories work, how seemingly insignificant things that happen in childhood stay with them and become more important as the years go by.”

Bringing to the screen the novel of the same name by Paolo Conietti (in Greek, ed. by Pataki), the Italian film tells the story of a great male friendship. In the mid-1980s, two boys meet in the mountains of the Italian Alps: Pietro, a city boy from industrial Turin, and the more hardened Bruno, who lives permanently in the mountains with his pastoral relatives. The summer they spend together will be the first of many, and years later, at the age of 30, they will also build a mountain retreat that will cement their friendship. However, Pietro’s adventurous nature will lead him to the heights of Nepal, and Bruno does not want to part with the mountains where he grew up.

The past decades still lend an epic character to the story of an epic friendship. Men now and with different experiences, these two meet only in the summer, in a reunion that nonetheless acts beneficially, creating new experiences and healing past wounds. And all this in a magnificent landscape, which is clearly the third “hero” of the film. Filmed here are the Italian Alps, in which the pair of directors spent eight months, reflecting in a unique way the power and beauty of nature, the change of seasons and the inevitable passage of time that leaves its mark on living and inanimate beings.

“We wanted to make an epic film with subtle gestures. An ode to the fragility and strength of every living being, person, animal, plant or mountain. No cynicism. We explored how memories work, how seemingly insignificant things that happen in childhood stay with them and acquire meaning over the years, ”the creators say.

Their rather long (140 minutes) film really flows like a river, without any special peaks and bends, but manages to touch the viewer with its spontaneity. Finally, the duet of the protagonists should be especially noted: Luca Marinelli (Martin Eden) and Alessandro Borghi (Suburra), one of the leading Italian actors of their generation, excel here in performances full of sensitivity and devotion. the spirit of the script they serve.