A myriad of stories and languages, with a single goal: to portray the mountains
Published 08/04/2025
22 films selected for the international competition, 126 films in total. Gervasini: “Mountain film, for which Trento has always been the world’s main showcase, tells stories about high lands with a variety of expression that has never been as wide as it is today”.
At this 73rd edition, scheduled from 25 April to 4 May in Trentino’s main city, Trento Film Festival offers a bird’s-eye view of the mountains and reflection about them. «Climate change, abandonment and the fragility of whole ecosystems. Mountain film, for which Trento has always been the world’s main showcase, tells stories about high lands with a variety of expression that has never been as wide as it is today, testifying to the existence of a favoured scope – stories about and in the mountains – and the many ways of achieving it; from researched and more specifically educational documentaries, animation and fiction short films, to exploration through increasingly extreme sports and mountaineering. The first salient characteristic of this selection is thus the diversification of language and content» explains Mauro Gervasini, in charge of the film programme.
126 films have been selected, of which 22 for the international competition: 12 full-length and 10 short films: there are 31 international premieres, of which 16 at world level, and no less than 77 Italian premieres. A pre-opening event on Friday 25 April will be dedicated to the guest country in the Destination… section. At the Supercinema Vittoria there will be screening of Angelo Sciarra and Geraldo Junqueira De Oliveira’s Silêncio Branco, a 1960 Argentine film telling the story of the San Martin, the ship responsible for supplying the Argentine scientific bases at the South Pole, in search of Lieutenant Alvarez, lost during a reconnaissance mission in Antarctica. The film, specially restored by the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires, returns with this new version to Trento Film Festival, where it had its world premiere in 1961.
The opening film will instead be Marco Segato’s Mar de Molada, which follows the creation of the performance of the same name by Marco Paolini, interweaving theatrical narration and reality, focusing on the relationship between the geographical area, theatre and civil conscience. Marco Paolini – who will be present in the cinema for the world premiere of the film – and the director will accompany the public through the artistic process for a project developed to recount an area linking the sea to the mountains through the course of the River Piave, interweaving theatrical narration and reality, theatre and civil conscience, elements that have always lain at the heart of Paolini’s work.
«The mountains are described and recounted with all the contrasts, tension and enthusiasm experienced in the contradictory relationship with men, women and communities. We will see still life scenes reinhabited only by animals compared with scenarios threatened by human settlements, we will listen to the breath of trees and rocks, return to the Apennines with partisans on the 80th anniversary of the Liberation, follow young people from Greenland in search of a dog and listen to those battling to prevent environmental disasters in the valleys. However, we can also find family sagas interweaving with the fate of small and large countries, stories of Kurdish porters moving between Iraq and Iran, exercising their ancient trade as kolbari, we will travel to Africa and Brazil through precarious ecosystems that battle to resist, we will return to Europe to explore the climbing “identity” of Wales or the impossible, even crazy, challenges of young skiers» continues Gervasini, summarising the content of the films in the international competition.
After the success of the last edition, the Cincontri programme continues, once again this year presenting itself as a meeting point between the film and the events programmes. The directors, and in some cases the protagonists, of the films will be present in the cinema, offering special talks after the screenings. In addition to the appointment with Marco Paolini, a further seven Cincontri have been scheduled. Beyond. Lettera a chi non è andato oltre by Alex Bellini and Francesco Clerici; Katia Bernardi’s Nella pelle del drago, with the artist Marco Martalar at the event; Celina Murga’s El aroma del pasto recién cortado; Tra natura e quota – Giovanni Storti sopravvive alle Alpi Apuane, with the participation of Giovanni Storti; Walid Berrissoul’s Qivitoq, with the former snowboarding champion Mathieu Crépel; Alberto Meroni’s I nomi inventati dal cielo, with members of the Tomio family; Il canto del ghiaccio by Stefano Collizzoli and Paolo Ghisu, and L’unico superstite by Stefano Floreanini, Giuseppe Tringali and Mario Veluscek. For the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, there are two different films that help to understand the health of these fragile giants. Lastly, there is the eagerly awaited Mauro Corona. La mia vita finché capita by Nicolò Maria Pagani, a work about the life of the writer and sculptor Mauro Corona, who will talk to Davide Van De Sfroos, Mauro Gervasini and the director at an event chaired by Simone Marchi.
The closing film is French: Louis Courvisier’s Vingt Dieux! (Holy Cow), shown for the first time in Italy. Set in the Jura region in France, it tells the story of 18-year-old Totone, who after the tragic death of his father, finds himself suddenly having to take care of his younger sister and the family farm, which has been struggling for some time.
International Competition
At this edition, 22 films have been selected for the International Competition, half of which made by women directors. With no less than 16 countries represented (Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Norway, Brazil, Mongolia, Greenland, Spain, France, UK, Benin, Australia, Portugal, Canada and Argentina) it will be a Competition ranging freely between meridians and parallels, but always looking upwards. There are stories of individuals and community battles, recounted using an extraordinary variety of language: from the most experimental trials to great narrations, challenging feats and encounters with the mountains to proof of threatened ecosystems.
«The competition has never been so varied, unclassifiable and unconnected to a single formula as it is this year. The participating films will make us ask ourselves about the sense of limit inevitably required by the mountains, and against which we are continually invited to measure ourselves» comments Mauro Gervasini.
Alp&Ism
Mountaineers Sophie Lavaud, Stefano Ragazzo, Matteo Della Bordella and Iván Vallejo, rock climbers Ashima Shiraishi, Molly Mitchell and Nina Caprez, French kayaker Nouria Newman, former snowboarding champion Mathieu Crepel, explorer and adventurer Alex Bellini, trail running champion Hillary Gerardi, climbers Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell, freestyler Markus Eder and snowboarders Victor de le Rue and Camille Armand right up to the mountaineering pioneer Jamie Logan. Their stories, and many others, in one of the most extensive and varied selections for Alp&Ism (no less than 27 films) in the last few years.
«With 27 films, a record for recent times, the Alp&Ism section demonstrates the inexhaustible desire of those who approach the mountains with a solid technical background (and if may I say so also culture, which means an awareness of one’s own limits but also the desire to overcome them)» explains Gervasini. «Climbers who for example retrace paths followed in the past, failed ventures and reattempted after years, returns that are based not on nostalgia but rather on the need to confront scenarios that have changed in the meantime, along with those who for obvious reasons of age, decide to return and in some cases try again. Another recurring theme is accessibility. Who is denied access to the peaks? The answer is nobody, so long as they are treated with respect, so we see people with different disabilities, fragilities or pathologies recount their daily challenges to overcome physical and mental limits, both their own and those of the rockface».
High Lands
«Stories of men, women and communities tackling climate change, depopulation of mountain areas, the return of large carnivores, re-evaluation of mountain economies, but also solitude, the fight for identity and the right to survive in extreme places. Journeys, exploration and encounters centring on human beings and their relationship with nature» says Mauro Gervasini, listing the many themes characterising High Lands this year. This is the section exploring most directly the relationship between human beings and the mountains, with high quality documentaries about mountain people, traditions and landscapes undergoing transformation.
Near Horizons
For many years Near Horizons, one of the most popular sections with the festival public, has been the showcase dedicated to filmmakers, productions and stories from Trentino-Alto Adige, in cooperation with Trentino Film Commission, and from this year with the support of the Banca per il Trentino Alto Adige – Bank für Trentino-Südtirol. Gervasini comments: «This year, the section dedicated to films produced or set in Trentino or Alto Adige has further increased in value, with three films dedicated to mountaineering and other small and large local stories exploring the evolution of the mountains, with all their many aspects”.
Special Screenings
Special screenings, documentaries and fiction, experimentation and video art programmes; this year the section of Trento Film Festival exploring new frontiers in terms of language and experiences focuses particularly on the glacier crisis, but also pays homage to Clint Eastwood with his great climbing film, The Eiger Sanction. 50 years after its release in cinemas, Trento Film Festival pays tribute to one of the greatest literary and film mountaineering thrillers.
Premieres
Important national and international premieres feature figures of international standing, starting with Reinhold Messner: his film K2 – La grande controversia is eagerly awaited, returning to the story of the first ascent of K2 by an Italian expedition in 1954 and the controversy that followed, which centred on the figure of Walter Bonatti. Then we find Marco Paolini, Mauro Corona and Giovanni Storti, from the comic trio Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo in an unusual role as “guide” to the Apuan Alps, along with many other new films from Poland, France, Belgium and Canada.
