Andrea Gobetti

Itaca nel Sole is the name of a climbing route on El Caporal, a wall in Piedmont, Italy, that resembles the worldwide renowned El Capitan. Among climbers, the fame of the route is due not so much to the considerable technical difficulty, but to the symbolic charge that still holds hold on legions of climbers and enthusiasts. Itaca's image is linked to an exceptional character: Gian Piero Motti. Mountaineer, writer and mountain philosopher, Motti embodied the doubts and anxieties of a generation at the crossroads. Through testimonies, photos, and archival materials, his story is articulated through his famous writings.

The documentary recounts the brief yet intense "beat" epic of a group of young climbers who, from 1973 to 1975, brought the restless and creative climate of '68 to the rocks and revolutionized the traditionalism of the Piedmontese and Italian mountaineering world. It's an initiatory journey for a tribe of young rebels who, inspired by the theories of Gian Piero Motti, experienced their mountaineering season as an inner torment, some discovering yoga and some marijuana, some rapt with ecstasy and others with rage. A season lived to the sound of Bob Dylan and Popol Vuh, with a profound recklessness towards life. The climbs became true explorations charged with symbolic and visionary meaning, along routes baptized with evocative names: Cannabis, Fessura della Disperazione, Strapiombi delle Visioni, Diedro Sanchez.