07/08/2024 - Following the success of The Eight Mountains, which was based on one of his books and honoured at Cannes 2022, Paolo Cognetti is making his directorial debut with a documentary about Monte Rosa

Writer Paolo Cognetti is making his directorial debut with the feature-length documentary A Flower of Mine [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which is screening as a world premiere on 6 August as a pre-opening event for the Locarno Film Festival. Sold in 30 countries, Cognetti’s debut novel formed the basis of Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s eponymous film The Eight Mountains [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Felix van Groeningen & Char…
film profile], which scooped the Jury Prize at Cannes 2022, in addition to four David di Donatello Awards in 2023. It makes sense that the 45-year-old author who loves mountain peaks and has a degree in screenwriting from Milan’s Civic Film School would want to express himself in the first person, having previously worked on several short documentaries earlier on in his career, plus another directed by Dario Acocella called Sogni di Grande Nord [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which focused on a journey made by the writer all the way to Alaska, following in the footsteps of Into the Wild’s Christopher McCandless.

There’s just one mountain in question here though: Monte Rosa, the most extensive mountain range in the Alps, stretching between Piedmont, the Aosta Valley and Switzerland. The catalyst for the story was the drought in the summer of 2022, which also impacted the spring nearby the wood- and stone-built house to which Cognetti had retired some years previously, in Estoul, a small village 1,700 metres above sea level in the Aosta Valley. That well-known sign of climate change, which is threatening our once-eternal glaciers, led Cognetti to set off on a small tour of high-altitude refuges with a view to showcasing his mountain. Joining him and his faithful hound Laki on this journey is director of photography Ruben Impens, whom he met on the set of The Eight Mountains. Together, amidst breathtaking scenery, ibexes and wolves, they introduce us to the various inhabitants of these valleys.

And these laconic though incredibly real “natives” are unarguably interesting. Remigio Vicquery, Cognetti’s childhood friend who was born and raised in Ayas Valley is the custodian of the region’s historic memory and, in just a few words, he conveys the emotions which can only be felt by those who live in the mountains: the melancholia of imminent autumn, the torment of loneliness in the shadow of those intransigent rocks… Arturo Squinobal, a mountain guide whose face seems to be carved out of wood, almost forms part of the scenery. His daughter, Marta Squinobal, has turned the Orestes Hütte into the first and only vegan refuge in the Alps. The other characters, meanwhile, are convincing as representatives of what literature would call a need to escape from so-called civilisation, to recharge in a natural setting, and to search deep inside of themselves. Sete Tamang, a former sherpa on Everest from Tibet, who is now happily working at the Quintino Sella Refuge (3,585 metres above sea level), confesses: “If I’d stayed there, I would have died in a crevasse or in an avalanche.”

There’s no rhetoric in this film, and the central theme isn’t overegged. Ultimately, the wisest advice we hear about the disaster looming over us comes from Valdostan resident Marta Squinobal, a Buddhist yoga and meditation teacher who stresses that: “obviously, we have to be more responsible, but when nature says: ‘I’ve had enough’, it will get rid of us and move on”. Cognetti sidesteps the traps he fell into with Sogni di Grande Nord: there aren’t any melodramatic voice-overs overpowering the images. Instead, he leaves room for silence and for nature, for objects and faces. It’s difficult directing a documentary in which you’re also the protagonist; you run the risk of complacency. But Cognetti does what a documentary director should do – he asks questions - and what a writer should do: he gathers and interprets signs, he analyses the words of unknown idioms (like Gressoney’s Titsch dialect), and he allows the story to unfold unhindered, accompanying us along this fascinating stroll through the mountains.

Produced by Italy’s Samarcanda Film and Nexo Studios, Belgium’s Harald House and EDI Effetti Digitali Italiani, A Flower of Mine is hitting Italian cinemas on 25, 26 and 27 November, courtesy of Nexo Studios, and will soon be distributed in Switzerland by Praesens Film AG. Nexo Studios is also managing international sales.

(Translated from Italian)