Pietro, a city boy who visits the tiny mountain village of Grana with his mother one summer, meets a local herder boy, Bruno. Both 11 years old, they become friends over ensuing summer trips. Years later, Pietro’s father dies, leaving him a remote plot of land high on the mountain. He reunites with Bruno to rebuild a collapsed house there, rekindling his connection to the mountain and his friendship with Bruno, which continues as they navigate life, dreams, and relationships.
Set in northwest Italy’s spectacular Aosta Valley region and adapted from Paolo Cognetti’s novel with remarkable craft and transfixing beauty, THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS explores the extraordinary lifelong friendship between two men who, drawn together by a place, share a bond that transcends their divergent paths in life. An epic story expressed through intimate gestures, it’s a heartbreaking reflection on our connection to nature and the strength and fragility that coexist within us. (Synopsis from 2023 Sundance Film Festival)
“Quietly magnificent…a slow, gradual accretion of detail that builds to a spectacular vista across the ridges and troughs, the spires and valleys of a lifelong, life-defining friendship…Stately and serene from a distance, but up close riven with the fissures and follies of a friendship that costs both men so much but gives them even more, the movie, too, is a mountain.” —Jessica Kiang, Variety "This is a movie with air in its lungs and love in its heart. It is spacious and unhurried in its devotion to beauty and to what it means to be human…This film has mystery and passion, it climbs mountainous heights and rewards you with the opposite of vertigo: a sort of exaltation.” —Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
