Nothing about friendship is simple. The Eight Mountains knows this. Platonic ties are complex and unsavoury in this hypnotic meditation on companionship, masculinity and the natural world. It also bears a striking resemblance to Elena Ferrante’s seminal novel My Brilliant Friend.
Based on the Italian Paolo Cognetti novel, we follow the friendship of Bruno and Pietro, which starts in childhood. The preadolescent boys meet in Grana, a small and impoverished fictional village at the foot of the Italian Alps. Young Pietro (Lupo Barbiero) visits yearly with his father (Filippo Timi), a stressed-out city worker that looks forward to his annual getaways. Bruno (Cristiano Sassella) is the son of a farmer who takes part in the daily family effort. The two boys form a bond that keeps them going through the darker months – until they can reunite in the next summer holiday.
Teenhood snuffs out their mutual obsession, but the memories of idyllic summers remain. After becoming estranged from his family, an adult Pietro (Luca Marinelli) makes the bitter discovery that Bruno (Alessandro Borghi) and his now-deceased father grew close in his absence. Together they must build the isolated mountain cabin his father dreamed of and find a comforting return to their difficult friendship.
A two-hander’s beauty is that Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi play off each other’s emotions, propping up an already dynamic script. Each reunion is filled with relief and unease, just as the characters feel at the top of a mountain. Every meeting between Pietro and Bruno is an opportunity to see a new Bruno. The first is the gregarious boy; the second is the gruff teen in farm denim; the third is the bearded outdoorsman — taller, stronger, more capable. These different Brunos remind us that the characters in this story breathe and live in their struggle, just as protagonist Pietro does in his.
The plot of The Eight Mountains on paper lacks direction and momentum. Characters come and go as they please, not because it makes sense for the plot but because it makes sense for them. In doing so, the characters come to life. In other hands, it would not be enough, but Groeningen & Vandermeersch create a dynamic inner world between the two characters that matches the majestic and jagged vistas filmed outside.

Much of the run time is outdoors. The boys run down creeks. The men hike up the Alps and the Himalayas. Over their shoulders, the ghost-like mountains in the distance keep watch. The landscape feels tactile and vast in the hands of cinematographer Ruben Impens. But a weather-beaten Bruno reminds us that it’s ‘nature’ to tourists. ‘Creeks’ and ‘forests’ are for the folk who must survive off them. There is a menacing spirit within the reels of the movie, heightened by the shots of sharp rocks and a rumbling soundtrack that matches the underlying threat the friendship poses to Pietro’s ego.
The Eight Mountains is in conversation with Ferrante about our most crucial keepsake, the friendship. Among many similarities to Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series, the friendship in the film mimics the bond between Ferrante’s Lila and Lenu: The whip-smart friend that lacks good financial foundations. The protagonist that has potential and wealth but lacks the drive to make something of their talents. Friendship is not just a support in these stories but a wall to grapple onto. There is envy, and disgust, and idolatry. It also gives life, love, and connection. Friendship moulds our future character, for better and for worse.

The two stories still have significant differences, the most prominent being that the film follows men. Bruno and Pietro share a father – one is the biological son, and the other is the spiritual son. It’s tempting to say that Bruno and Pietro is a story about toxic masculinity, but that is not the whole truth. Masculinity is how the three men push each other to be stronger, and it’s how they jab at each other’s tender parts, but masculinity is also how they care for one another. It informs what is so bold and compelling about The Eight Mountains.
From what we know from the beginning of the film, Giovanni can be a professional brute in the city. In the earliest scenes to cause actual stress, Pietro’s father, Giovanni takes the two boys to the glaciers, where they must jump across an uphill fissure. Bruno is near flawless in his leap. The boy is used to farm work, predisposed to having a hunger for life. Pietro, shy and suffering from altitude sickness, falters at the edge. Giovanni pushes Pietro to follow suit, but to his dismay, his son trips and begins to weep in the snow. Pietro’s memories of his father involve shouting and screaming. Yet when the boy apologises on the ground, his father jumps across the gap and comforts him. From there, they start the slow walk home at Pietro’s pace. The characters are surprising and multifaceted in this way.
If the Ferrante comparison failed to convey it, Eight Mountains is not a pioneer. Compelling and strained friendships trying to survive age and distance make for some of the best stories. Groeningen and Vandermeersch still achieve a nearly perfect 3-hour runtime without losing focus. The film in an intellectual success and an emotional haunting.
Watch the trailer for the film here.
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