TRENT. TO “A pasteur” Of Louis Hanquet there Golden Gentian best film in the 72nd Trento Film Festival. The French director’s film tells the life of a young shepherd and his life isolated from the world, dealing with loneliness and an invisible adversary.
“The real mountain, ancient and at the same time very current, won, the ‘sour’ mountain, made of harshness and isolation”, the comment of Mauro Leveghi, president of the Trento Film Festival. “Not easy life choices, once the result of necessity, now perhaps faced with greater awareness and will, but in some ways even more difficult to carry out, having to fight against subtle enemies such as social conventions and stereotypes, as powerful as effects of climate change, silent and invisible like the wolf”.
There Golden Gentian Best mountaineering film, mountain populations and life – Cai Award goes to the movie Le fils du chasseur by Swiss director Juliette Riccaboniwith a special mention for Marmolada – Madre Roccia; the Golden Gentian Best exploration or adventure film – Award “City of Bolzano” to The Great White Whale by Michael Dillon; the Silver Gentians Best technical-artistic contribution to the animated short Body of a Line by Henna Taylor and Best short film to Postcards from the Verge by Natalia Koniarzwith a special mention to Silent Panorama by Nicolas Piret. Jury Prize to Seventeen of the Swiss Thomas Horat.
A suspended life, out of time and in an inaccessible world, grappling with loneliness and with an invisible adversary: the story of Félix, a melancholy and reserved young shepherd, amazed and moved the international jury of the 72nd Trento Film Festival, which then awarded the film Un pasteur by Louis Hanquet (France/2024/71′) the Golden Gentian Best film – “Città di Trento” Grand Prize.
“The film offers themesmerizing portrait of a young man and his existential choice, capable of leaving us all admired. The director captures various moments in Felix’s life, surrounded by his animals, be they dogs or sheep, which he knows how to take care of in a sensitive and attentive way. In the overall vision that he offers us, Un pasteur calls us to respect and humility in the face of a community made up of animals, men and nature that coexist in harmony”: this is the motivation of the Jury.
Félix lives alone and works with his father to raise the family flock: from autumn to spring he takes care of his animals, feeds them and guards them in the dense holm oak forests of the French pre-Alps. In the summer, he leaves his father and travels more than two hundred kilometers on foot to lead the herd to mountain pastures, up to the Ubaye valley, in the Alpes de Haute Provence. There, for long months, far from everything and everyone, he lives in a world made of rocks, where an invisible being wanders: the wolf.
“There is a common thread that links the Jury’s choices, a thread that winds through the psychological narrative of the protagonists and in their relationship with the places: not just backdrops, but drivers of intimate and complex journeys”, he says the director of the exhibition, Luana Bisesti. “Choices as always original and not obvious, a worthy conclusion to an edition that has rewarded the Festival’s ability to renew itself, reinvigorating its seventy-two years of history in a contemporary way”.
The Golden Gentian wins Best film about mountaineering, populations and mountain life – Award of the Italian Alpine Club Le fils du chasseur by Juliette Riccaboni (Switzerland/2023/54′), a film that “presents the moving story of a young Swiss man of Moroccan origins animated by the desire to get back in touch with his father. The search for him encounters moments of extraordinary truth about the life of his father and his old friend Charlotreconnecting the public to all those who, in one way or another, are left behind in society”. A special mention was awarded to Marmolada – Madre Roccia by Matteo Maggi and Cristiana Pecci (Italy/2024/76′).
The Golden Gentian Best exploration or adventure film – “City of Bolzano” award went to The Great White Whale by Michael Dillon (Australia/2023/104′) “for the courage, the resourcefulness of the crew, the climate of camaraderie that shines through the stories of the protagonists and the skilful use of the archives. The Great White Whale is not only the first successful attempt to climb the summit of Big Ben. It is also the metaphorical value of a distant horizon to be explored collectively, taking advantage of the experiences of those who preceded us in the same challenges. He reminds us that there is nothing riskier than doing nothing and that what we will regret when we are too tired and old are the chances not taken.”
The Silver Gentian – Best technical – artistic contribution was awarded to Body of a Line by Henna Taylor (United States/2023/10′). “The new documentary adventure of Henna Taylor reports on climbing the Dunn-Westboy Direct up Longs Peak, completed by Madeleine Sorkin over the course of an entire day on the wall. A heartfelt narrative, which takes into account Sorkin’s continuous attempts to reach the summit without ever falling. To paraphrase Madeleine, Body of a Line feels like a symphony moving through our bodies.”
The Silver Gentian – Best Short Film went to Postcards from the Verge by Natalia Koniarz (Poland/2023/40′): “the intimate story of two young traveling filmmakers. During their adventure through the Andes they encounter many unexpected difficulties, from the Covid pandemic to border crossings, their relationship reaches maturity in encountering the life difficulties facing local residents.” A special mention was awarded to Silent Panorama by Nicolas Piret (Belgium/2024/5′).
The Jury Prize was finally awarded to Seventeen by Thomas Horat (Switzerland/2023/17′), with this motivation: “The history of men, of women and the memory of places are harmoniously combined in Antonietta’s words. His memories take us back to the moment in Italy when a choice was necessary. Seventeen tells us how the choice of anti-fascism of a young partisan consciously contributed to the freedom of the generations that followed”.
“I am doubly happy for the awarding of the Golden Gentian Grand Prize ‘City of Trento’ to Un pasteur by Louis Hanquet, first because it is an important film that tells the radical choice of a boy who climbed with his flock and his dogs into mountain, away from everyone but without ever being truly alone; because Hanquet is a director making his debut. , he concludes Mauro Gervasini, responsible for the film program.
