original title:
Il buco
directed by:
cast:
Paolo Cossi, Jacopo Elia, Denise Trombin, Nicola Lanza
screenplay:
cinematography:
editing:
set design:
costume design:
production:
Doppio Nodo Double Bind, Société Parisienne de Production, Essential Filmproduktion, Rai Cinema, Arte, supported by Ministero della Cultura, with the support of Eurimages, CNC, Artè/ZDF, Regione Lazio, Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, Cinereach, Fondazione Calabria Film Commission
distribution:
Lucky Red [Italy], Demiurg [Albania], Film Kino Text [Austria], Imagine Film Distribution [Belgium], Demiurg [Bosnia and Herzegovina], Zeta Films [Brazil], Demiurg [Croatia], Aerofilms [Czech Republic], Ost for Paradis [Denmark], Must Kasi (Black Hand) [Estonia], Les Films du Losange [France], Film Kino Text [Germany], Xenix Filmdistribution [Germany], Cinobo [Greece], Cinefil [Hungary], Falcon Pictures [Indonesia], New Wave Films [Ireland], A-One Films [Latvia], A-One Films [Lithuania], Cineteca Nacional [Mexico], Demiurg [Montenegro], Imagine Film Distributie [Netherlands], Demiurg [North Macedonia], New Horizons [Poland], Risi Film [Portugal], Il Sorpasso [Portugal], Independenta Film [Romania], Garage [Russia], Demiurg [Serbia], Anticipate Pictures [Singapore], Aerofilms [Slovakia], Demiurg [Slovenia], Green Narae [South Korea], La Aventura Audiovisual [Spain], Hooray Films [Taiwan], Filmarti [Turkey], Arthouse Traffic [Ukraine], New Wave Films [United Kingdom], Grasshopper Film [United States]
world sales:
country:
Italy/France/Germany
year:
2021
film run:
93'
format:
colour
release date:
23/09/2021
festivals & awards:
During the economic boom of the 1960s, Europe’s highest building is being built in Italy’s prosperous North. At the other end of the country, young speleologists explore Europe’s deepest cave in the untouched Calabrian hinterland. The bottom of the Bifurto Abyss, 700 meters below Earth, is reached for the first time. The intruders’ venture goes unnoticed by the inhabitants of a small neighbouring village, but not by the old shepherd of the Pollino plateau whose solitary life begins to interweave with the group’s journey. Another work of nearly wordless organic beauty that touches on the mystical, Il buco chronicles a visit through unknown depths of life and nature and parallels two great voyages to the interior.
DIRECTOR’S NOTES:
In January 2007, the mayor of the Calabrian village where I was filming Le quattro volte, took me on a tour of the Pollino. “You must see the wonders of these mountains!”, he said. He brought me to a sinkhole where a meagre cut in the ground could be seen. I was perplexed, disappointed. The mayor, on the other hand, enthusiastic and proud, threw a large stone into that void. It got swallowed by darkness. The bottom was so deep that nothing could be seen nor heard. That disappearance, that lack of response, gave me a very strong emotion. That strange place stuck with me, calling me back to it years later, to question it and create a project within the silent blackness of the Bifurto Abyss.