Alexis Franco’s “Donde los árboles dan carne” wins Golden Gentian for Best Film at the 73rd Trento Film Festival

Published 03/05/2025

The Argentine director describes the solitary and tenacious resistance of an Argentine gaucho and his family in the face of drought and climate change.

The Cai Award Golden Gentian for the Best Film on mountaineering goes to the film Adra by the British director Emma Crome; The “City of Bolzano” Award Golden Gentian for the best film on exploration or adventure goes to All The Mountains Give by Iranian filmmaker Arash Rakhsha; Silver Gentians are awarded to Alison McAlpine’s Perfectly a Strangeness for best technical-artistic contribution, and Christoffer Rizvanovic Stenbakken’s Anngeerdardardor as Best Short Film.
The Jury Prize goes to The Wolves Always Come at Night by the Australian director Gabrielle Brady.
The T4Future Award, an official prize from this year, goes to the short animated film Tête en l’air by French filmmaker Rémi Durin.

The solitary and tenacious resistance of an Argentine gaucho and his family impressed the International Jury of this 73rd Trento Film Festival, which awarded the film Donde los árboles dan carne by Alexis Franco (Argentina, Spain, USA/2024/72′) the Golden Gentian for Best Film – “City of Trento” Grand Prix. «With an intimate yet powerful gaze, Alexis Franco takes us deep into the heart of the Argentine Pampa, where different generations face the consequences of desertification and the dissolution of a world that once seemed unchangeable. The director crafts a film suspended between fiction and reality: a humanist neo-western that deconstructs and reimagines the masculine myth of the gaucho, restoring dignity and fragility to a community that still resists without rhetoric. The narrative unfolds through daily gestures and arid landscapes, evoking a silent epic that questions our relationship with the land and with time»: this is the motivation given by the jury. The film, produced by Roberto Minervini, recounts the efforts of Omar, an Argentine farmer, to keep his cows alive in the face of a very long drought, relying only on himself and the strong bonds of love with his family.

«After the howl of Salgado’s glacier, the overall award at this edition is also a cry of desperation and at the same time warning, to stir the conscience and make people realise that climate change has become a crisis, with a violent impact on everyone’s life, starting with the primary sector so fundamental for feeding the world», commented the President of Trento Film Festival Mauro Leveghi. «For the umpteenth time, Trento Film Festival helps people not just to open their eyes, but also to look up and courageously face the extraordinary challenges facing humanity».

The Golden Gentian for the Best Film on mountaineering – the Club alpino italiano Award – goes to Emma Crome’s Adra (United Kingdom/2023/53’), a film that «brings us on a wild ride through the history, culture and community of North Wales, one of the worlds most vibrant epicentres for rock climbing. It brings out the essence, the heart and soul of climbing, from its rebellious spirit to how it brings people together and gives them a sense of belonging. We get pulled into the diverse landscape of North Wales and this film makes us want to go there and possibly share a rope with some of the funky characters. But most importantly it reminds us that even though ropes and carabiners can be useful for climbing, you should never forget to bring the style».

«The landscapes of north Wales, with their crags and slate mines, accompanied by the stories of key figures in British climbing and archive material, make Adra into a snapshot of community and identity, keeping alive and contemporary memories of the splendours of the United Kingdom in the 1980s still to be found at Llanberis», affirms Antonio Montani, General President of Cai – Club alpino italiano. «In the film climbing acts as a bond between generations, a form of both attachment and love for the local area, and friendship and sharing: all values that Cai promotes every day with its commitment to encourage the younger generations to approach the mountains».

The Golden Gentian for the best film on exploration or adventure – “City of Bolzano” Award goes to All The Mountains Give by Arash Rakhsha (Iran/2023/90′) «Not everyone has the luxury of doing difficult journeys for pleasure alone. We salute the film’s director, cinematographer and editor, Arash Rakhsha, who early in life was forced by circumstance to be a smuggler himself, but who then taught himself filmmaking skills of a very high level and returned over six years to film the harsh life of his smuggler friends. He shares their dangerous journeys and intimately portrays their family life and their fading dreams for a better future. We admire the filmmaker’s multi-skilled contribution, and acknowledge the haunting music score, which he, as both director and editor, incorporated so well».

«Through an original use of time-lapse and the hyperrealist cinematography, Perfectly a Strangeness transforms the Chilean desert into a suspended landscape, where the high definition of the image feeds a profound sense of wonder in the face of the cosmos. The director Alison McAlpine and the cinematographer Nicolas Canniccioni create a sensory experience that is both ironic and moving: a short, dialogue-free film, visually stunning, paying tribute to other iconic four-legged protagonists of cinema—such as those immortalized by Bresson and Skolimowski—offering a poetic reflection on wonder and otherness». With this motivation, the Silver Gentian for best technical–artistic contribution has been awarded to Perfectly a Strangeness by Alison McAlpine (Canada/2024/15’).

The Silver Gentian for best short film goes instead to Anngeerdardardor by Christoffer Rizvanovic Stenbakken (Greenland, Denmark/2025/19’): «For its rare ability to intertwine narrative delicacy, visual strength, and authenticity, telling, with a pure and sincere gaze, the isolation and longing for connection felt by those who see themselves as different. An intimate story that becomes universal».

The Jury Prize has been awarded to The Wolves Always Come at Night by Gabrielle Brady (Australia, Mongolia, Germany/2024/97′) giving the following motivation: «From the very beginning, director Gabrielle Brady constructs a hypnotic vision that immerses us in the daily life of a Mongolian family. With great sensitivity and a close, humanistic gaze, she crafts a hybrid film that weaves together fictional scenes created in collaboration with the protagonists. With a steady and profound narrative rhythm, Brady alternates between moments of the family’s daily work—such as herding sheep—and instances of intimate familial joy. She does not shy away from blending lighthearted happiness with the weight of drama, as seen when Davaasuren, the father, discovers that a sandstorm has killed much of his flock, or when he is forced to sell his beloved horse in order to move to the city. The character wrestles internally with the uncertainty of the future and his deep attachment to his surroundings, and as viewers, we accompany him on that emotional journey. The strangeness of this new and hostile urban environment allows the director to introduce a poetic note: the dreamlike return of the cherished horse in a symbolic sequence that suggests a glimmer of hope amid the displacement».

The T4Future Award, established by Trento Film Festival in 2022, but joining the official awards for the first time this year, goes to the short animated film Tête en l’air by French filmmaker Rémi Durin (France/2023/11′). The jury, made up of pupils at secondary schools in Trentino, has written: «Tête en l’air impressed us not only with its well-finished graphics, but also with its message, inviting us to observe even the smallest details that others ignore. It is a short film suitable for all ages: children will be engaged by a story that is intriguing in itself, while adults can grasp the deeper hidden meanings and appreciate it even more».

«The black and white of the poster for this 73rd edition also returns in the choices of the international jury, contrasting resistance and discouragement, freedom and oppression, justice and abuse, and inclusion and diversity, with the continual ambivalence that demands reflection and leads us to reason about the complexity of the problems and the necessary solutions», said Festival Director Luana Bisesti.

«A magnificent prize list recognising the variety of entries in this year’s competition. – concluded Mauro Gervasini, in charge of the film programme. – The Golden Gentian for Best Film – “City of Trento” Grand Prix going to Donde lo arboles dan carne by Alexis Franco is not only recognition of a story about the resilience of a family in the Argentine Pampas facing the consequences of climate change and increasingly harsh rural life, but is also an appropriate conclusion to the homage paid to Argentine film this year by the festival. The Cai Golden Gentian awarded to Adra goes to an excellent director, Emma Crome, who starting from a story about climbing in Wales, has succeeded in reflecting on concepts of community and identity. The City of Bolzano Golden Gentian awarded to All the Mountains Give recognises the best adventure film, set in the midst of Kurdish smugglers on the border between Iraq and Iran. I am also particularly happy that two prizes have been awarded to short films, because I am increasingly convinced that the future of film lies with the “short format”. In addition to the Silver Gentian for best short film, which goes to the splendid Anngerdaardardor by Cristoffer Rizvanovic Stenbakken, the Silver Gentian for best technical–artistic contribution has indeed also gone to another equally surprising short film, Alison McAlpine’s Perfectly a Strangeness».