Michelangelo Frammartino’s “Il buco”

Il buco (The Hole) (2021)

One of the most breathtakingly beautiful films of the last few years takes an almost zen approach to telling the parallel stories of a shepherd and a group of cave explorers while remaining easily accessible to a wider audience; a sublime cinematic experience

Told almost entirely without dialogue, “Il buco” recalls the tone of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the visual storytelling of Sergio Leone and Genndy Tartakovsky and the demeanor of Michelangelo Antonioni which sounds inaccessibly heavy but it works beautifully while remaining light.

It tells the parallel stories of an elderly shepherd in the Calabrian mountains of Southern Italy and a group of young cave explorers who arrive to explore the cave beneath the ground on which his cattle graze. Set in 1961, there’s a tranquility that permeates the entire experience. Even the massive army truck that ferries the spelunkers into the mountains moves like an ambling beetle on the ground.

This is one of those films which has the ability to reset a person. It’s a refreshing and moving experience. See it on the biggest screen you can manage.