“Destination… Argentina”: Trento Film Festival focuses on a land of migration and climbing feats
Published 27/02/2025
After Ireland, this year’s special section will be dedicated to Argentina, a country with which Trentino has woven a deep bond over the centuries, linked to migration and climbing feats. The film programme includes several international premieres and two restored films.
“Destination…” is the section of Trento Film Festival that since 2011 has presented events and screenings dedicated to the film and cultural characteristics of other countries and geographical areas. This year the choice has fallen upon a land – Argentina – that has developed a deep bond with Trentino, in a twofold context. On the one hand, there are the deep-rooted relations established between Trento and Buenos Aires as a result of a long history of migration and cultural, social and economic exchanges; a relationship that has evolved over time, starting with the major waves of migration from Trentino to Argentina in the 19th and 20th centuries, representing a virtuous example of how migration can generate long-lasting bonds between different geographical areas. On the other hand, specialising as it does in mountain and climbing film, the Festival has already featured the South American country for decades, given that it is home to some of the most iconic mountain ranges in the world, with reference to both the Andes and above all the peaks of Patagonia. Over the years, the jagged peaks of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre, renowned for their technical challenges and the natural beauty of the surrounding landscape, have attracted adventurers and expert climbers – many of them from Trentino – but also directors and documentary makers keen to capture stories of human courage and resilience.
In a specifically cinematographic context, «there are two reasons that led us to choose Argentina as the “destination” for the special section» explains Mauro Gervasini, in charge of the film programme for Trento Film Festival. «The first is that for decades Argentina has been the main source of Spanish language film in Latin America, together with Mexico. With a vast audience and a very important star system, Argentina has been an unavoidable point of reference for South American film. In the last 25 years, a new generation of filmmakers has given rise to a sort of aesthetic revolution, which has gone on to have an effect on film outside the Hispanic sphere of influence, via international film festivals. We refer here to directors such as Lucrecia Martel, Rodrigo Moreno, Lisandro Alonso, Santiago Mitre, Pablo Trapero, Fabián Bielinsky, Juan José Campanella, Gaston Solnicki, Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat. However, we cannot fail to mention Mariano Llinás, who with Laura Citarella and other directors founded El Pampero Cine: a production company marked first of all by its creativity, acting as an enormous driving force».
«The second reason we considered it urgent to dedicate a section of the Festival to Argentinian film» continues Gervasini, «regards the present day. Due to a fall in public funding, the Argentinian production chain risks emerging from the current economic and political situation with significant and worrying downsizing. Drawing attention to Argentinian filmmaking seemed to us to be particularly precious, precisely to underline the indispensable nature of film from Buenos Aires and the surrounding area at international artistic level».
The film selection
Among the works making up the film selection for “Destination… Argentina”, three international premieres stand out. The feature film Soberanos by Agustín Ortiz Byrne (Argentina, 2024) reconstructs historic events that actually took place: in September 1966, a group of young idealists indeed hijacked a scheduled flight in order to set off to “reconquer” the Malvinas, better known as the Falkland Islands, scene of a genuine war of occupation between the United Kingdom and Argentina over the centuries. The film tells this story, with performances by some of the youngest and most promising actors on the Buenos Aires scene, including María Abadi and Nicolás Mateo. Leandro Horatio Cerro’s Islandia (Argentina/Iceland, 2024) is instead a powerfully introspective documentary, presented in the Highlands section. Following the death of his father, as a way of managing his grief and trauma also through silence, the director sets off on a journey to Iceland that will lead him to discover not just a new country, but also and above all himself. Lastly, the short film Entre siete by Valentina Lorenzo (Argentina, 2024) is inspired by real-life events, telling the story of a group of young people who decide to stop during a car journey to bury a dog they have run over.
There are a further three Italian premieres. The short film Cuando todo arde by Maria Belen Poncio (Argentina, 2024) tells the story of Isabel, a volunteer at a local fire service unit responsible for dealing with forest fires, who is ostracized by her colleagues after having attacked a real estate development guilty of weakening the fragile ecosystem attacked by the flames. El aroma del pasto recién cortado di Celina Murga (Argentina, 2024), with Martin Scorsese as executive producer, is instead a feature film that explores the story of Pablo and Natalia, two university lecturers, both married and involved in secret relationships with two of their students. The film explores the way in which their affairs, different and similar at the same time, bring them together, interweaving and mirroring one another. Lastly, Hernan Rosselli’s Halgo viejo, algo nuevo, algo prestado (Argentina, 2024) is an experimental feature film, moving between fiction and documentary to recount the ordeals of a girl, who together with her mother inherits from her deceased father the management of a clandestine betting network. The title refers to an Argentinian tradition according to which brides, on the day of their wedding, most wear something old (algo viejo), something new (algo nuevo) and something borrowed (algo prestado).
Furthermore, this year “Destination…” also offers two new features: a film restored by the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken and a 4K restoration, plus a series of tributes intended to draw attention to contemporary Argentine filmmakers.
The first selection will see screening of the restored Silencio Branco by Gerardo Junqueira De Oliveira and Angelo Sciarra (Brasile, 1960) and Fabián Bielinsky’s Nueve Reinas – Nine Queens (Argentina, 2000) in the new 4K version. While the former is a documentary – given its international premiere in 1960 precisely at Trento Film Festival – recounting an adventurous expedition to Argentine Patagonia, the latter is instead a political thriller, which in its time was also well-received by the public in Italy, contributing to the fame of the leading actor, Ricardo Darín, whose father’s family was originally from the Belluno Dolomites. Silencio Branco returns to the Festival restored for its European premiere, while the restored version of Nueve Reinas – Nove Regine has already been successfully presented in Argentina and will see its Italian premiere in Trento.
The tributes to major contemporary filmmakers will see presentation of four films: Rodrigo Moreno’s Los delincuentes (Argentina, 2023), Santiago Mitre’s La cordillera (Argentina, 2017), Pablo Trapero’s La quietud (Argentina, 2018) and Zama by Lucrecia Martel (Argentina, 2020).
The events programme
As takes place every year, there will be many events and meetings taking place alongside the equally rich selection of films dedicated to the guest country. During the ten days of the Festival, the city of Trento will thus also be animated by events linked to “Destination… Argentina”, with concerts, workshops, exhibitions and evenings celebrating the longstanding traditions and recent history of a land characterised by both ethnic diversity and cultural peculiarities.
Starting from sound and music, the Istituto Italiano di Cumbia will inaugurate the Festival with a concert scheduled for 25 April, organised in cooperation with the Municipality of Trento and ARCI del Trentino. Two producers, a trumpet, a percussionist and five singers will take us on a journey exploring the cumbia, a musical genre that started in Colombia, to then spread throughout Latin America and eventually also beyond the ocean. The performance will be an embodiment of anthropological change, with a musical scenario that brings together popular music and electrical and electronic sound, controlled by the güira, a percussion instrument in the form of a grater characterising the rhythm of the cumbia. A masterclass conducted by the DJ and producer Nahuel Martinez will also be dedicated to the cumbia, while the more widely recognised sounds of Argentina will animate Piazza Mostra, with an Exhibition of Argentine tango and milonga organised in cooperation with Progetto Tango ASD Rovereto and Social Tango ASD Trento. A further two “musical” events are instead scheduled in cooperation with the METS – Museo Etnografico Trentino San Michele. The AstorGato Concerto, has been conceived as a homage to two enduring icons of Argentine music: Astor Piazzolla, bandoneon player, composer and the author of famous works combining tango and jazz; and Gato Barbieri, a saxophonist, internationally renowned jazz musician and composer of various soundtracks, including Last Tango in Paris. The novel line up, brought together specifically for this project, will feature the virtuoso bandoneon player Gabriele Di Bonaventura, together with award-winning saxophonist Gavino Murgia and the versatile violinist Mattia Martorano, accompanied by a rhythm section with Andrea Ruocco on double bass and Alessandro Ruocco on drums. Lastly, again at the METS, a workshop entitled Bandoneon vs Trentino Harmonium, will compare these two traditional instruments, reflecting on their singular similarities.
As we have said, Argentine history is also marked by migration and intermingling. A number of events are intended to reflect specifically on these aspects, such as presentation of the podcast “Daughters”: in memory of the desaparecidos, a project comprising six episodes developing out a meeting between Sofia Borri and Sara Poma, which recounts a tragic phase in the history of Argentina. Sofia was two years old when in February 1978, she and her mother, a Communist Party militant, were seized in Mar del Plata. While her mother became one of the thirty thousand desaparecidos, Sofia was freed after a week, managing to escape to Italy together with her father. Cesarino Fava and other stories of migrants will instead talk about migration, this time from Italy to Argentina. The event is organised by the Fondazione Museo Storico del Trentino and intends to explore the history of Trentino emigration, with tales of 20th century migrants, starting from interviews and autobiographical documents collected by the Trentino Emigration Documentation Centre. Stories such as the intense and extraordinary account of Cesarino Fava, a mountaineer from Val di Sole and Cesare Maestri’s historic climbing companion, but also of other people who found themselves emigrating following a proxy marriage or simply in search of a better life. They are narratives featuring common people, combining personal fragments, video footage and comments from experts. Two events, in cooperation with the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Trentini nel Mondo association, will help us to understand the relationship between Trentino and Argentina in contemporary times, bringing us into contact with second/third generation eyewitnesses: artists, sculptors and intellectuals who do not have the nostalgia of their grandparents but are rather curious about their roots.
The aforementioned Cesarino Fava and Cesare Maestri were climbers from Trentino undoubtedly linked to the mountains of Argentine Patagonia, just as Elio Orlandi has been in more recent times. For Trento Film Festival the latter will curate a special exhibition about his adventures in Argentina. An evening featuring Matteo Della Bordella, currently involved with CAI’s Eagle Team project in Patagonia, will also be dedicated to the peaks of Patagonia. The story of his major expeditions cannot thus exclude the particular experience of the project underway, giving rise to an un event that promises to be enthralling.
Another great friend of the Festival, Hervè Barmasse, will take us on a journey exploring the wealth of Argentina’s cultural, geographical, natural, artistic and climbing heritage.
Lastly, there will also be space for publications about Argentina, browsing through the pages of the books to be presented this year at the Festival. Canoe in Patagonia by Valentina Scaglia (Nutrimenti mare edizioni, 2024) is the story of a fascinating journey on water by a group of Italian canoers, across one of the most uninhabited regions of the planet. PATAGONIA ROUTE 203. Il segno del vento by Eduardo Varela (Solferino, 2025) is also a “logbook”, but in the form of a novel: an extraordinary journey exploring a boundless landscape via some of the most inhospitable and surprising routes in the south of the world.
As usual, the programme of “Destination… Argentina” will be enriched by opportunities for food and wine tasting in the prestigious setting of Palazzo Roccabruna and the newly organised Baita Festival, in Piazza Mostra.
