IL PASSO

2016, Italy, 52 minutes
Documentary
DCP

Directed by Francesco Ferri, Alessandra Locatelli, Mattia Colombo

Produced by Start
in collaboration with RAI Cinema
with the support of Regione Lombardia

Gabriele is thirteen and has a strong will to prove himself. He chooses to spend the summer in the mountains to look after cattle and returns home a new person. Dotted with feats of strenght and unexpected moments of tenderness, The Pass is an unusual coming-to-age story, set in a world bound to disappear.

SYNOPSIS

The Pass is the story of a challenge: Gabriele, thirteen years old and no actual mountain life experience, chooses to spend the summer in a mountain pasture. He joins a family of Valtellina herdsmen and goes up with them to the high pastures, where cows can find clean air and fine grass.

Although agricultural school awaits him at the end of the summer, Gabriele is not really looking to learn a job, he simply wants to prove to be he is self reliant.
Like everyone else, he wakes up every each day at five and joins in the milking, looks after the pasturing cows, watches the tricky churning process and regularly carries out his chores. He is the youngest member of the team, and he is both aware and proud of this, although often at night he becomes melancholy and texts his mother, as often pointed out by Claudio, who is the lively team leader, while making fun of him.

When, by the end of the rainiest july in a long time, Gabriele has become Claudio’s right- hand man, something clearly has changed: the scared small boy who used to keep to himself, his eyes downcast while playing with the swiss army knife has turned into a little adult, who can take on his own responsibilities and tries to stand on his own.

FESTIVALS

PICURT 2017, Andorra
Terre di cinema 2017, Tramblay-en-France
Cervino Cinemountain Film Festival 2016
Visions du Réel, Switzerland,  2016 | world premiere
Fimmaker Festival 2016, Milano
Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival 2016 | won the Special Mention
Trieste Film Festival 2012 | Finale bando Corso Salani
Visions du Réel, 2012 | Rought Cut Lab