Il Buco

Michelangelo Frammartino was born in Milan in 1968. He studied Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, where he developed a passion for the relationship between physical space and photographic images, video, and cinema. After graduation, he continued his studies at Civica Scuola del Cinema in Milan, where he designed video installations influenced by Studio Azzurro’s art research. Frammartino’s debut IL DONO (2003), a no-budget feature film, shot in his parents’ village in Calabria, premiered at the Locarno Film Festival. It went on to win the Grand Prix at the Annecy Film Festival and the Jury Prize at both Thessaloniki and Warsaw. Frammartino’s second feature, LE QUATTRO VOLTE (2010) premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival. The film won the Europa Cinemas “Best European Film” award in Cannes, and the main prize at CPH:DOX, and was the 2010 Directors’ Fortnight “Coup de coeur”. In 2013, Frammartino’s installation ALBERI, a 26-minute loop, premiered at MoMA PS1 and was subsequently shown at other museums, including Centre Pompidou’s 2021 Hors Pistes Festival. Frammartino’s third feature film, IL BUCO was shot in Southern Italy, in the neighboring regions of Calabria and Basilicata which continue to inspire him and where all his previous works were shot. With the approach of an anthropologist, Frammartino captures the traditional and transcendent with a simplicity and spirituality that is unique to his filmography.