In this Cannes Jury Prize winner, two twelve-year-old boys from different backgrounds (Bruno is local, Pietro from the city) become childhood best friends at a remote Italian mountain village where Pietro's family spend their summers. Estranged as teenagers, Pietro returns fifteen years later following the death of his father, when the pair pick up their friendship and build a cabin on the mountain. Taking pastoral idyll to the extreme, every frame in the mountains is simply beautiful to look at, presented in classic Academy ratio. It is a simple and universal tale of friendship, loss, regret and generations, but as powerful and elemental as the forces of nature that are intrinsic to the lives of the characters, with overarching themes of change and permanence handled contemplatively. Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi are sublime as the two adult friends destined for different paths, and even though the ending is perhaps inevitable it is still utterly heartbreaking, rounding off this beautiful and moving film.
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