Synopsis
Gabriele is thirteen and has a strong will to prove himself. He chooses to spend the summer in the mountains to look after cattle and returns home a new person. Dotted with feats of strength and unexpected moments of tenderness, Il passo is an unusual coming-to-age story, set in a world bound to disappear.
A word from Tënk
The world depicted in Il Passo may seem like a pastoral symphony, but it is not immune to the harsh laws of the social group. Young Gabriele tries to carve out a place for himself in a harsh world, where sleep deprivation, hunger and physical labour dictate an austere daily life for a young teenager. But the scenery surrounding the daily labour transforms the challenges of apprenticeship into a tale suspended between heaven and earth. And Gabriele mimics the gestures, fakes indifference in the face of brutality, puffs out his chest and holds back his tears. It's a harsh and cruel time to be leaving childhood behind! In the midst of cattle and mountains, we find the comfort of a world reduced to its simplest dimensions, irreducibly physical, where the social fabric is experienced more than it is imagined. But despite the nostalgia, it's clear that things aren't any simpler there, unfortunately.
Naomie Décarie-Daigneault
Tënk's Artistic Director
With the support of
