documentary - 63' - 2017

For centuries, every year, every summer, on September 8th, swarms of winged ants travel to the “Mount of Ants” in Italy, where they mate in flight: the impregnated female ones create new colonies while the male ants die in the ground, at the foot of the sanctuary built on the top of this mountain and dedicated to “Our Lady of The Ants”. Tourists, curious and faithful who come to admire the singular event and to attend the feast, are witnesses of the mystery of life. This singular phenomenon is the starting-point of the film’s reflection about the ant’s nature and the human being, who could see himself mirrored in the little insects. Great writers, such as the Nobel Prize awarded poet Maurice Maeterlinck and the entomologist Carlo Emery, wrote a lot about the relationship between man andants: their questions about life, nature and human beings found an echo today in the witnesses of the film.

director: Riccardo Palladino
cinematography: Enrico Barzaghi
editing: Riccardo Palladino
original music: Benedetta Gelati, Dave Seidel, Miguel Negrao
producers: Riccardo Palladino, Lara Brucci, Luca Ricciardi
produced by: CamerAmano
in coproduction with: RAI Cinema
distribution: FilmAffair


festival and awards:
• Documenta Madrid 2018: Nature on Edge
• Trento Film Festival 2018: in competition
• Annecy Cinema Italien 2017: in competition
• Locarno Festival 2017: Cineasti del presente – in competition