The Eight Mountains

''The Eight Mountains'' ( it, Le otto montagne) is a 2022 Italian drama film co-directed by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, who co-adapted the screenplay from the novel of the same name by Paolo Cognetti. The film depicts a friendship between two men who spend their childhood together in a remote Alpine village and reconnect later as adults. The title is a reference to the concept in Buddhism and ancient Indian cosmology that the world is composed of nine mountains and eight seas, specifically eight concentric circular mountain ranges separated from one another by eight seas, with the ninth and tallest mountain, Mount Meru, at the center.

The film premiered in competition at the 75th Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2022, where it won the Jury Prize tying with '' EO''. The next year it was awarded the David di Donatello for Best Film.

Plot

In the summer of 1984, Pietro, an 11-year-old from Turin, and his mother, Francesca, rent a house in Grana in the Italian Alps. There, they meet Bruno, the last kid remaining in the village. Estranged from his parents, he lives with his uncles and aunt. Pietro and Bruno quickly become friends and while the summer away. Months later, Pietro’s father Giovanni arrives as well and the trio go on a hike. One day, Bruno tells Pietro that Pietro’s parents have offered to adopt Bruno so he can go to school in Turin, and his uncle has agreed; Pietro, fed up with city life and believing Bruno should not be uprooted from his present life, protests this decision. However, Bruno’s father soon takes him away to work for the summer and they do not see each other again.

Five years later, the 16-year-old Pietro and Bruno coincidentally meet at a bar, but neither speaks to the other. Pietro's family returns to Grana, but it’s not the same without Bruno. Soon, Pietro stops returning to the mountains and does not see Bruno again for 15 years; meanwhile, clashes between Pietro and his father over the former’s future lead them to grow apart.

15 years later, the 31-year-old Pietro has found a job at a restaurant in Turin. One winter night, he receives a call from Francesca that Giovanni has passed away and returns to Grana. Bruno arrives and the two head into the mountains, where they discover a pile of rocks and wood on a slope that Giovanni left behind for Bruno (who has become his surrogate son during the last several years) to build a house with. They begin work in the spring and complete it during the summer. Bruno plans to restore his uncle’s pasture and continue living the life of a mountaineer, while Pietro continues working while writing a book on the side.

The next summer, Pietro returns with friends, including Lara, with whom he is briefly involved. Months later, Bruno calls Pietro, telling him that Lara is interested in working with him; they soon become a couple and Lara gives birth to Anita.

Feeling dissatisfied with his aimless life, Pietro decides to reinvent himself by visiting Nepal. Some time later, having published his book, Pietro returns to visit Bruno. One night, Pietro casually tells him about a Nepalese he met who told him that for them, the world is circular, consisting of eight circular mountain ranges divided by eight seas, and at the center of it all is Mount Meru, the tallest mountain. He asks Bruno whether the person who has visited the eight mountains and eight seas is more learned than the person who has scaled Mount Meru. Bruno identifies himself as being on Mount Meru and Pietro claims to be visiting the eight mountains and that he is more knowledgeable.

Back in Nepal, Pietro meets and begins dating Asmi, a schoolteacher. Returning to Grana, he is visited by Bruno. Pietro tells him that he plans to settle down in Nepal and probably will not be returning to Grana yearly; Bruno invites him to dinner and leaves. Pietro hikes to a peak he and Giovanni reached decades ago and finds a journal in which Giovanni wrote about his experiences and feelings during hikes with Pietro and Bruno. Over dinner, Bruno and Lara argue over financial issues with her accusing him of having his head in the clouds. Pietro offers to help, but Bruno refuses, and the former returns to Nepal.

One day, Pietro receives a call from Bruno who tells him that his pasture has been taken away, Lara is living with her family and took Anita with her, so he wants to spend some alone time at the house they built and would appreciate Pietro’s company. Pietro obliges. One night, Bruno reminisces about the former happiness of his marriage; Pietro replies that he is a good father who should take up a regular job so he will not abandon Anita like his father did him. Angered, Bruno tells Pietro to leave. Pietro visits Lara, who tells him that she only now understands how little she and Anita mean to Bruno in comparison to his mountain; Pietro remarks that he wandered too far away and should have stayed there. He returns and makes up with Bruno, who accepts his life living alone in the mountains. As he leaves, Bruno tells him to not worry about him for the mountain has never hurt him.

One day, Pietro receives a call from Lara who tells him that a snowstorm buried the house and Bruno is nowhere to be found, presumably dead. Rescuers break into the house by making a hole in the roof but don't find Bruno inside. Learning that the house’s roof now has a hole, Pietro reasons that the house will not last either because in some lives, there are mountains to which one cannot return, including the mountain at the center of it all. As he plays soccer with children at Asmi’s school, he realizes that all that remains is to wander the eight mountains because on the highest mountain, he lost a friend.

Once the snow has melted in the spring, Bruno's dead body is revealed away from the house.

Cast

Production

The film was shot in the Italian Alps, Turin, and Nepal over seven months, beginning in the summer of 2021.

Release

The film had its world premiere in competition at the 75th Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2022. It had a limited theatrical release in USA by Janus Films on 28 April 2023, in France on 21 December 2022, and in Italy the following day.

Reception

Box office

''The Eight Mountains'' grossed $235,093 in North America, and $10 million in other territories.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 64 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Patient, profound and sometimes a bit ponderous, ''The Eight Mountains'' reaches breathtaking peaks in its careful observance of an intimate friendship." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "favorable reviews".

See also

* List of Italian films of 2022

Notes

: Pietro's apparent recreation of the Nepalese's drawing is likely inaccurate as the eight mountain ranges are shown to be even partitions of the world arranged in a circular fashion without seas in between them, as opposed to being concentric circular ranges separated from one another by seas.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Eight Mountains, The
2022 drama films
2022 films
Italian drama films
Belgian drama films
French drama films
2020s French films
2020s Italian-language films
Films set in Piedmont
Films set in Turin
Films set in the Alps
Films set in Nepal
Films set in the Himalayas
Films shot in Piedmont
Films shot in Turin
Films shot in Nepal
Films directed by Felix van Groeningen