Director

FULVIO MARIANI was born in 1958 in La Chaux de Fonds (Switzerland). In 1981 he began to work as cameraman for Italian Swiss Radio and TV, making various documentaries about mountains, exploration and adventure. In 1983 Mariani took part in his first expedition up the North Face of Everest. In 1985 he followed the first solo climb of Cerro Torre by Marco Pedrini, and made Cumbre, which won many awards. As a result of this film, Mariani began to work independently, specialising mainly in adventure films. He has taken part in various climbs, accompanying world famous climbers, such as Reinhold Messner, up the South Face of Lhotse, where he made the documentary 2000 metri al 21° secolo, and Jerzy Kukucza; L'anno nero del serpente is his tribute to the great Polish climber. His was behind the camera in Cry of Stone by Werner Herzog and the TV series Viva Africa (RaiUno) and Overland, made in 1996. In 1995 he directed the award-winning documentaries L’uomo di legno and La strada per Olmo Lunring.

The film, with Walter Bonatti, follows in the footsteps of Alberto Maria De Agostini, a Salesian priest, photographer, writer and film-maker, and his titanic work of exploration, combining photographs and historical footage by Father De Agostini (from 1910 until 1956) with current shots.

Filmed entirely in Tierra del Fuego and in Patagonia, in 1999, this film is a real journey in the land of myth and proposes a fantastic sequence of some of the most spectacular and wild places in the southernmost regions of America.

Photos
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