(Michelangelo Frammartino, Italy, France & Germany, 2021, 93 min, in Italian with English subtitles)

** Winner, Special Jury Prize, Venice Film Festival! **

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 neighboring 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 from the visionary director of Le Quattro Volte, Michelangelo Frammartino’s Il Buco chronicles a visit through unknown depths of life and nature and parallels two great voyages to the interior.

Synopsis and stills courtesy of Grasshopper Film.

“Where nature, the universe, and humans converge… A mystical cinematic experience.” – Bong Joon-ho 

“A quiet, intense, almost overwhelmingly beautiful meditation on life, death, human curiosity and the unfathomable power of nature.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“Breathtaking. Staggering. The mere existence of these shots is remarkable. The resplendence of the cave sequences must be seen to be believed.” – Forrest Cardamenis, Reverse Shot

“Il Buco proves that cinema still has the capacity to astonish.” – Lee Marshall, Screen