Adnkronos (Adnkronos) –
The 21st Rome Film Fest welcomes director and actress Kasia Smutniak, returning behind the camera for "Mustang." Two years after her previous work, "Mur," she presents an intimate and previously unpublished story, born from her first trip to the remote Mustang region in 2003 with Pietro Taricone, which spans over twenty years of her life.
The documentary, which will soon be released in theaters by Fandango, comes 16 years after Taricone's death, then 35, following a skydiving accident. The two were together for nearly ten years, and their love led to the birth of their daughter, Sophie. "Mustang" thus becomes a promise at the edge of the world, spanning time and generations: a journey through love, loss, and memory, searching for what remains when everything changes.
“I'm delighted and honored that Mustang is being presented to the Italian public in Rome. Seven years in the making, over twenty years in the making. I began telling this story without knowing where it would take me,” Smutniak said in a statement. “'Mustang' took me on a journey that can only be undertaken through complete abandon.
A deeply personal journey, intertwined with the fate of a community and its desire to preserve Tibetan culture. This film captures much of what I've experienced, the people I've met, and what I've learned to let go of over the years." In 2003, Kasia and Pietro had just met when, with a backpack and a small camera, they set off for Mustang.
That place suspended in time, where not even a road exists, becomes part of them, and there they exchange a promise: to return one day and do something to protect that culture. But the course of events suddenly changes, and they will never return together again. Many years later, their daughter Sophie rediscovers the images of that first journey and those her mother took with her as a child. It is during this journey that she encounters a special woman, Kunzom, and with her, the promise they once made is fulfilled: to build a school that allows the children of that region to continue their education without having to abandon their families. Through Sophie's voice, the story retraces over twenty years of life, merging personal memory and collective history, on a journey that spans time and generations, searching for what remains when everything transforms into that incessant flow known in Mustang as Samsara.
'Mustang' is a documentary film written by Kasia Smutniak and Marella Bombini, a Fandango production in association with Luce Cinecittà with the contribution of the Pietro Taricone Association thanks to the support of the Italian Buddhist Union and is produced by Domenico Procacci, Laura Paolucci and Kasia Smutniak.
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