Alpine Climate Doc ‘Flower of Mine,’ Directed by ‘Eight Mountains’ Novelist, Set to Pre-Open Locarno

The Locarno Film Festival has set Alpine elegy movie “Fiore Mio” (“A Flower of Mine”) as its pre-opening event. It marks the first film written and directed by bestselling Italian novelist Paolo Cognetti (“ The Eight Mountains ”), who also stars. Besides writing “Eight Mountains,” Cognetti was also “on set” when Belgian directors Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch shot the film adaptation of his book, which won the Cannes Jury Prize in 2022.

In “Flower of Mine,” Cognetti returns to similar Alpine settings, bringing along “Eight Mountains” cinematographer Ruben Impens as his DP. The film depicts the Alpine landscapes and glaciers that are destined to disappear or change forever due to the climate crisis. Cognetti was moved to make the doc when a drought during the summer of 2022 caused the spring near his home in Estoul — a small village located 1,700 meters above sea level overlooking the Brusson Alpine valley — to dry up.

His stated narrative model is the well-known “36 Views of Mount Fuji” series of Japanese woodblock prints by Hokusai Katsushika. Similarly, “Flower of Mine” continuously changes points of view in “describing the [mountain] life that flows at various levels,” according to promotional materials. “Flower of Mine” will pre-open Locarno on Aug.

6 as a special event screening on the Swiss fest’s 8,000-seat Piazza Grande. The doc — produced by Samarcanda Film, Nexo Studios, Harald House and EDI Effe.