cinematography
Ariel Salati
editing
Stefano Knuchel
music
Stefano Knuchel
Zeno Gabaglio
Niton
sound
Tommaso Dugato

with
Patrizia Zanotti
Dominique Petitfaux
Thierry Thomas
Marco Steiner

production
Fiumi Film
producer
Vittoria Fiumi

world sales
Fiumi Film
info@fiumifilm.ch

A journey through Venice, the Pacific Ocean, and Switzerland retraces Hugo Pratt’s life as an initiatory path shaped by memory, myth, and water. Or perhaps that life was merely a dream of Corto Maltese? Crossing lagoons, oceans, and inner landscapes, the film explores storytelling as a passage between visible and invisible worlds.

2026 Hugo in Venice (doc)
2021 Hugo in Argentina (doc)
2017 Quand j’étais Cloclo (doc)
2009 Hugo in Africa (doc)
2004 Nocaut (doc, co-directed with Ivan Nurchis)

“Like many people, my imagination was shaped by reading Hugo Pratt. I later discovered that his life was as fascinating as the stories he told. This discovery gave rise to a project that stayed with me for almost twenty years: tracing three defining moments in his life through three films. Hugo in Venice – A Yearning to Be of No Use marks the culmination of this journey. I did not want to make a biography, but to seek the origins of his vision. To do so, I explored forgotten archives, restored scattered materials, and followed Pratt’s traces across several countries. I tried to allow mystery to remain part of the story. For this reason, the film combines rigorous research with a free-form approach, one that does not claim to explain an author, but rather seeks to enter into dialogue with his imaginative world.” (Stefano Knuchel)

Stefano Knuchel (1966) is a documentary director. His Hugo Pratt trilogy comprises Hugo in Africa (Orizzonti, Venice Film Festival), Hugo in Argentina (Giornate degli Autori) and his latest work, Hugo in Venice. For over thirty years, he was a journalist and cultural producer at RSI. Since 2010, he has headed the Locarno Film Festival’s innovation programmes: first the Locarno Academy, then the Locarno Factory. He also composes film music.