“Asterión” by Francesco Montagner

2022 · color · CZ · 15’ · In competition

Under the burning sun, a solitary bull awaits tireless, whilst a man jumps deep into the darkest waters of his persona, in their common attempt to defeat death.

In this silent visual poem, the massive body of a bull appears on the table of a meticulous taxidermist, having died in the hot sun in the middle of a bullfighting arena. Working with the body of an untamed animal, the man is inwardly transformed and finds in the animal’s skin a way to cope with his own mortality and the transience of life.

“It’s the story of a double fate, the one of the man and the one of the bull, both doomed to succumb to their own restless natures.” Francesco Montagner

The director | Francesco Montagner

Francesco Montagner (1989, Italy) studied Directing in Documentary Film at FAMU in Prague. He made his debut with Animata resistenza (2014), which he co-directed, co-wrote, and produced, for which he won the Venezia Classici Award for Best Documentary on Cinema at the 71st edition of the Venice Film Festival.
Brotherhood (2021) is his second award-winning feature documentary which premiered at 74. Locarno Film Festival and won the Pardo d’Oro Cineasti del Presente and the Best Czech documentary award, and Best Cinematography at the 25. Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival. Brotherhood received several other awards in over 30 festivals worldwide.

Director Statement

Asterión is a poem. It’s a hymn to life and death, to the eternal struggle, to the inner need of change and transformation, but also it’s a poem about the final death of a culture.
It’s the story of a double fate, the one of the man and the one of the bull, both doomed to succumb to their own restless natures.
The story of Asterión came to me when I started to connect the famous tale of Borges, The House of Asterión, with the traditional Spanish taxidermia taurina. I was fascinated by the depiction of a sensitive and caring Minotaur facing the aggressively virile masculinity of Theseus. At the end of the tale, Asterión, decides not to resist his fatalistic end and he “scarcely defends himself” as an act of non-resistance while facing the true beast. Is this the role of contemporary man towards extreme virility?
Asterión is the second step in my filmography into my own private investigation on masculinity, after Brotherhood. The film poem is a defragmentation of the masculinity of the bull, an animal turned into a restless virile beast, operated by a man, a delicate one, a taxidermist, exploring the virility into pieces, trying to find its source, but being ultimately trapped into his own hidden will, to become like the bull.

Credits

Francesco Montagner
Director

Francesco Montagner
Writer

Veronika Kührová
Producer

Michal Kráčmer
Producer

Jose Luis Martin Moro
Key Cast

Michal Babinec
cinematography

Jorge Sanchéz Caldéron
editing

Runtime:
15 minutes

Country of Origin:
Czech Republic

Country of Filming:
Spain