Childhood games that summon something older than the mountains.
Matteo, a boy from the city, goes to visit his grandfather in a secluded mountain village, where preparations for a local ancient festival are under way. Matteo spends the eve of the festival with Lidia and three other boys from the village. The group of kids begins a dangerous game, bringing up obscure mysteries that are rooted in the past of that mountain valley. Matteo thus goes through a sort of initiation, at the end of which he is able to exorcise his fears, but only after becoming uncomfortably conscious of the existence of evil.
Direction
Györik treats landscape as antagonist—every slope watches back.
Cinematography
Fog-drenched peaks that make isolation viscerally beautiful.
Sound
Silence weaponized; wind becomes dialogue.
Director
Mihály Györik
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Draws on actual Alpine folklore where mountain passes were believed to be liminal spaces between worlds.
Mari Törőcsik was a Hungarian cinema legend in her final role—her weathered face carries decades of unspoken village history.
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