As the tallest building in Europe is under construction in the prosperous North of Italy during the economic boom in August 1961, a group of young speleologists heads off down to explore the world underground at the other end of the country, a place being abandoned by its inhabitants as they set off to try their luck elsewhere.
Michelangelo Frammartino’s Il Buco is the Abisso del Bifurto on the south-eastern slopes of the Pollino National Park, one of the deepest holes in the world and one of the most difficult in Southern Italy. Also known as the grotta del Lupo (wolf’s cave), the fissure in the earth at the foothills of the Pollino range sits in a territory with a wealth of karst formations near Cerchiara di Calabria in the province of Cosenza on the border with Basilicata.
The Calabrian director recounts the discovery of the cave, taking the viewer underground to a depth of almost 700m, a place dominated by perennial night and silence. The spectacular images of this venture overlap with those of the wild and untouched Calabrian hinterland, where the silence continues but which is flooded with light. All under the careful eye of an elderly shepherd.
As the tallest building in Europe is under construction in the prosperous North of Italy during the economic boom in August 1961, a group of young speleologists heads off down to explore the world underground at the other end of the country, a place being abandoned by its inhabitants as they set off to try their luck elsewhere.
Michelangelo Frammartino’s Il Buco is the Abisso del Bifurto on the south-eastern slopes of the Pollino National Park, one of the deepest holes in the world and one of the most difficult in Southern Italy. Also known as the grotta del Lupo (wolf’s cave), the fissure in the earth at the foothills of the Pollino range sits in a territory with a wealth of karst formations near Cerchiara di Calabria in the province of Cosenza on the border with Basilicata.
The Calabrian director recounts the discovery of the cave, taking the viewer underground to a depth of almost 700m, a place dominated by perennial night and silence. The spectacular images of this venture overlap with those of the wild and untouched Calabrian hinterland, where the silence continues but which is flooded with light. All under the careful eye of an elderly shepherd.
Doppio Nodo Double Bind, Société Parisienne de Production, Essential Filmproduktion, Rai Cinema, Arte
