Soldier Peter, the first film by Gianfilippo Pedote and Giliano Carli, takes its inspiration from a Hungarian soldier buried in the shrine of mount Grappa. His name was Peter Pan and he died during WWI in September 1918. Next to him are the remains of over 23,000 soldiers who fell in that war, most of whom are unknown.
On the Asiago plateau in 1918, a few days before the end of WWI, an Austro-Hungarian soldier (Ondina Quadri) crosses the barrier of the enemy front. He is very young, alone, scared. He crosses the plateau without meeting a soul, except for a patrol of Italian soldiers who don't seem to pay him much attention. The war seems to have moved elsewhere: only the traces of the devastation left by its passage remain.
The boy alternates anguished thoughts of his terrible experience in the trenches with clear childhood memories: his life as a shepherd, his mother, his friend Maty, who died in battle beside him, who he imagines finding on the longed-for island in the middle of the sea, a kingdom that lies beyond the real world where war does not exist.
On his journey through enemy land, the fear that accompanies him is mitigated by the strong presence of nature, with whom he nourishes a relationship of profound belonging and fearful respect. That foreign territory, with its meadows and woods, seems so very similar to his own land, while in his imagination he feels there is an increasingly obvious conflict between war and nature, entities that he imagines in the form of mythical figures. The war, which he imagines finally defeated by the force of nature, however leads him to death, which returns him to the natural cycle of existence where life always regenerates. On a funeral cross, in the middle of a meadow, the soldier's name finally appears: Peter Pan.
The co-protagonist of the film is undoubtedly nature, filmed by Matteo Calore without aestheticism or rhetoric in the beautiful environments of the Asiago plateau, in Veneto, which was one of the bloodiest fronts of the WWI, traces of which are still present.
Many scenes filmed in Asiago and its surroundings show the soldier on his journey and before him the war: in the centre of Asiago the dining room of the former Alla Rosa hotel provided an abandoned country school classroom. The exteriors are those of Contrada Draghi, a small hamlet in Arsiero, completely lifeless, at the foot of the plateau.
In his wanderings, Peter spends the night near an Italian trench on mount Zebio, where he builds a puppet with whom he has a surreal dialogue about his missing friends; he passes through Busa degli Sloveni, a sinkhole near mount Chiesa, north of the Asiago plateau where the barracks that the Austrians built for the troops still stand; he takes shelter from a plane in the courtyard of the monte Interrotto fortress and he crosses mount Rasta.
The flashbacks of Peter’s childhood in the town of his birth were shot in Enego, in the Piana di Marcesina area.
Evocative scenes were shot in Roana: in a wood in Holl - Camporovere di Roana, where Peter spots some abandoned military tents and near the grotta (cave) del Popolo, where Peter climbs an enormous boulder that appears to be hanging in the air over the Valle del Bisele.
Some scenes were shot in Trentino: on mount Corno (Capriana), near a cave, a river and waterfall on mount Rovere (Caldonazzo) and in a ruined house in Luserna.
Soldier Peter, the first film by Gianfilippo Pedote and Giliano Carli, takes its inspiration from a Hungarian soldier buried in the shrine of mount Grappa. His name was Peter Pan and he died during WWI in September 1918. Next to him are the remains of over 23,000 soldiers who fell in that war, most of whom are unknown.
On the Asiago plateau in 1918, a few days before the end of WWI, an Austro-Hungarian soldier (Ondina Quadri) crosses the barrier of the enemy front. He is very young, alone, scared. He crosses the plateau without meeting a soul, except for a patrol of Italian soldiers who don't seem to pay him much attention. The war seems to have moved elsewhere: only the traces of the devastation left by its passage remain.
The boy alternates anguished thoughts of his terrible experience in the trenches with clear childhood memories: his life as a shepherd, his mother, his friend Maty, who died in battle beside him, who he imagines finding on the longed-for island in the middle of the sea, a kingdom that lies beyond the real world where war does not exist.
On his journey through enemy land, the fear that accompanies him is mitigated by the strong presence of nature, with whom he nourishes a relationship of profound belonging and fearful respect. That foreign territory, with its meadows and woods, seems so very similar to his own land, while in his imagination he feels there is an increasingly obvious conflict between war and nature, entities that he imagines in the form of mythical figures. The war, which he imagines finally defeated by the force of nature, however leads him to death, which returns him to the natural cycle of existence where life always regenerates. On a funeral cross, in the middle of a meadow, the soldier's name finally appears: Peter Pan.
The co-protagonist of the film is undoubtedly nature, filmed by Matteo Calore without aestheticism or rhetoric in the beautiful environments of the Asiago plateau, in Veneto, which was one of the bloodiest fronts of the WWI, traces of which are still present.
Many scenes filmed in Asiago and its surroundings show the soldier on his journey and before him the war: in the centre of Asiago the dining room of the former Alla Rosa hotel provided an abandoned country school classroom. The exteriors are those of Contrada Draghi, a small hamlet in Arsiero, completely lifeless, at the foot of the plateau.
In his wanderings, Peter spends the night near an Italian trench on mount Zebio, where he builds a puppet with whom he has a surreal dialogue about his missing friends; he passes through Busa degli Sloveni, a sinkhole near mount Chiesa, north of the Asiago plateau where the barracks that the Austrians built for the troops still stand; he takes shelter from a plane in the courtyard of the monte Interrotto fortress and he crosses mount Rasta.
The flashbacks of Peter’s childhood in the town of his birth were shot in Enego, in the Piana di Marcesina area.
Evocative scenes were shot in Roana: in a wood in Holl - Camporovere di Roana, where Peter spots some abandoned military tents and near the grotta (cave) del Popolo, where Peter climbs an enormous boulder that appears to be hanging in the air over the Valle del Bisele.
Some scenes were shot in Trentino: on mount Corno (Capriana), near a cave, a river and waterfall on mount Rovere (Caldonazzo) and in a ruined house in Luserna.
Jolefilm, Partner Media Investment, JUNO11 Pictures, Rai Cinema
