Alpice

Description

Gaia, a well-intentioned and committed eco-activist, has spent 16 years working tirelessly on project Alpice, a new national park that would grant protected status to the remote area of the Ticinese mountains she can now call home. But since buying herself a live-in guest house in one of the valley’s villages 12 months ago, the local community has torn itself apart in the lead up to a local referendum, now only a week away, that will decide the park’s fate. And so, with the decision resting on a knife edge, Gaia sets off for one final hustings knowing that any chance the project has of getting greenlit rests on her ability to finally win the public endorsement, and so the votes of his wider sphere of influence, of local commune leader and landowner Duri.On arrival however, Gaia is shocked not only to discover that Duri is missing, but that local politician Uorschla has turned the tide against the park, claiming that the tourism it will generate will not only damage the region’s fragile ecosystem, but serves as proof of Gaia’s and other outsiders’ ulterior motives to enforce catastrophic changes to their traditional ways of life for financial gain. Furious and shaken by the personal attack, and desperately fearful now of losing the vote, Gaia snaps, unleashing on the community’s parochial mistrust - what more could she possibly do to prove her commitment to protecting the area? She returns home that evening defeated. And so she is surprised to wake to an anonymous tip-off the next morning that Duri is riding out the referendum in a shepherd’s hut, accessible only by a treacherous mountain path. Not convinced the note isn’t a hoax, she nevertheless makes the dangerous journey up, and on arrival discovers a morose Duri, torn between the strength of Gaia’s convictions and his fear of asking his community to sacrifice their way of life for an uncertain future. Gaia urges him to reconsider, before the two spend the night watching his flock. The next morning Duri wakes early, seemingly won over by Gaia’s good intentions, reassured of the area’s future in her hands, and ready to return to the village with her. But she is already long gone. As he makes his descent to catch up to her, he is alerted to smoke billowing from the valley below. He rushes down to the village, aghast to find Gaia’s guest house ablaze. A crowd of villagers begin to gather, their gaze turning from the fire to Gaia, back to the fire again. Who could do such a thing? Is it a threat from the no camp? An act of self-sabotage? Duri approaches her, confused, concerned. But Gaia stands silently unmoved, defiant. She knows now that she will endure her suffering for the greater good. The question she asks of them, is will they endure theirs?

Biblical Connection

1 Peter 2 speaks to the importance of living a righteous life in the face of suffering. That this suffering may be the result of a submission to an unjust higher power should only lead us to live yet more honorable lives, and to bear this injustice with greater patience. Ultimately it is a call to arms, compelling us all to suffer for what is good. And so Alpice, in which protagonist Gaia has devoted a noble life to the protection of the higher power of nature, in spite of the suffering she endures - both a universal existential suffering in the face of the climate crisis, and also the suffering at the hands of detractors who call her out for her hypocrisy and phoniness. The climax of the film returns to Peter’s assertion in 2:20-21 that unjust suffering at the hands of masters is commendable in the eyes of God, and asks what the ultimate sacrifice in our fight against climate change is. Is it ourselves, fighting the good fight, or is it those people already navigating the devastating consequences of climate disaster? And armed with this knowledge, what sacrifices are Gaia. and so we - really willing to make?