




by Nuno Escudeiro, 2023 fiction/documentary, Portugal/France, 37 min
Perhaps a mountain cannot belong to anyone, but memories and its presence within them result in something steeped in tradition. But everything that one looks upon with nostalgia has to be confronted with grown-up eyes. What do we do with the death (of the symbolism) of a mountain?
Director’s Note:
Over past years, I have spent time in places – either working or traveling – that marked me beyond my stay. They became part of me, and I of them; their struggles, their smell, their textures, their culture and their soul. Val di Susa, on the French-Italian alpine border, is one of them. I was so impressed by this rough land, whose commitment to political struggles ignites thousands of people throughout the world to fight alongside them. I became a witness of the violence and persecution that has been taking place here, of this hidden war that seems to want to remain invisible. Researching later in the archive Superottimisti in Turin, I revisited my experience of this place through amateur family films made there from the early 1930’s until the late 1980’s. This process of research led me to create a collective voice that stands for the many people I met in Val di Susa. The archive led me to travel between reality and dream, past and future, which both surprises me and assures me that I found a meaningful way to tell this place. This is the story of a mountain that found its way into me and that I will carry within me for the rest of my life.
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