Synopsis

Leading the narration of the documentary is the voice of Mario Rigoni Stern himself. Starting from his last years and travelling backwards, the writer recalls the war, imprisonment and the return home, ending at the moment of the publication of “Sergente nella neve” (1953), the book that marks the beginning of his career. In order to respect this personal narrative, we sought out testimonies from the writer’s private life. In addition to his wife and children, there are friends from the fields of theatre, cinema and music, as well as personalities linked to collaborations for which the writer left documentation.
Symbolically, the story takes place over the course of one day on the Asiago plateau, from dawn to starry night. But other places in the story take us to Val d’Aosta, to a lake in the middle of the mountains and to the Duca degli Abruzzi castle, the site of the military school of mountaineering at which Stern had volunteered in 1938. And then to Austria, to the Preblich pass, in search of the Lager where he puts his notes in order and resumes writing “The Sergeant in the Snow.”

Original/Alternative Title: The Upland Sergeant, Mario Rigoni Stern’s Story