30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

In 1961 a group of Piedmontese speleologists arrived in the Pollino mountains, in Calabria, to explore the Bifurto cave. We are in the midst of the so-called "economic boom". Humanity dreams of space exploration, and in the small town the inhabitants are gathered in front of a television to watch the rise of the Pirelli skyscraper in Milan, while these explorers decide to descend into an unknown cave, to illuminate the darkness. The waiting of speleologists between one exploration and another, in the encampment on the sunny pastures, is observed by the gaze and silences of an old shepherd. The risky descents on the ladders, the burning newspaper page to check the depth of the well, the reliefs of the cave shown in minute detail on paper are the gestures that mark a feat accomplished without fanfare. Frammartino chooses to tell it with shots that are never close together, with the light given only by the carbide flames on the helmets ,and with a symphony rich in sounds captured in the cave. Shot over three years of filming, with the participation of real speleologists who used equipment of the time, Il buco puts us in communion with the cave, making it in itself a living protagonist.

• 

  Michelangelo Frammartino

  Of Calabrian origins, after studying architecture at the Politecnico di Milano and then film at the Civica Scuola di Cinema Luchino Visconti, in 2003 he directed his debut documentary, The Gift. in his parents' native town. In 2010 he wrote and directed, again in Calabria, the film that revealed him to the world stage, The Four Times, presented at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at the Cannes Film Festival. He has been teaching since 2005, holding courses at the University of Bergamo ,the IULM University, and the University of Calabria and collaborating with CISA (International Conservatory of Audiovisual Sciences of Locarno). In 2021 he participated in competition with his third feature film, Il buco, at the 78th Venice International Film Festival where he won the Special Jury Prize.