Production Information
DOLOMITENFRONT is a rock feature film, a production feat for Shaking Foundations, an independent events and film production company from Berlin, with the support of local institutions as well as the great artists, talents, professionals and people of Fiemme and Fassa Valley in Trentino, Italy. The film was shot in September 2015.

Rock Film
Music is at the heart of the film. Originally composed songs were performed and recorded live on set. The vocals were recorded in a nearby chalet, which was turned into a recording studio. The entire dialogue is delivered through singing. The dialogue is in Italian (with English subtitles).

Concept
DOLOMITENFRONT is an outcry against all wars, past, present and future, and a hymn to peace from the highest of places. The film shows the necessity we all face of making a choice in life that will have critical consequences both on ourselves and on humanity as a whole. It revolves around a concept that another reality, invisible to human eyes, is behind all armed conflict, a reality where another kind of war is waged, with the fate of humanity at stake.

Setting
DOLOMITENFRONT is probably the highest musical film ever made! It was shot entirely on location, at 1800m altitude in the midst of skyrocketing Alps/Dolomites, in a hundred year old Austro-Hungarian fort used in World War One.

With Music Against War
DOLOMITENFRONT’s creators and participants were all inspired by the same idea: to use their talents to proclaim a clear anti-war message.

Military Fort as a Film Set and Music Venue
An Austro-Hungarian military fort, built and used to shell frontline positions in WWI is used for the first time in a hundred years, with a completely opposite purpose to the one for which it was built.

The 100th Anniversary of the Great War
DOLOMITENFRONT was produced and filmed on along the original Italian-Austro-Hungarian front in WWI.

Synopsis

Rehearsal room. A young six-piece rock band are midway through a song. “My enemies are like lions/Their jaws open wide/A pack of wild dogs/Tearing at my hands and feet/Sneering at me....” The band’s groove is powerful, the lead singer’s performance intense, perfectly reflecting the lyrics, as if he’s living every line, saying something important, something he can really feel and foresee.

Suddenly, the door of the room slams open and a group of soldiers burst in, fully armed, with gas masks on. The band members are all taken away and brought to an old, massive military fort on the frontline in the mountains, which is already full of young recruits.

On their arrival, the musicians are assigned their task: to keep the morale of the troops high and stimulate their aggressiveness. The lead singer, He (this is his name), is given a gun and with the other newcomers is sent to the observatory. The band is split as the music changes its purpose.

The other band mates soon find themselves comfortable in their new role and are actually excited and zealous about playing in the fort. They embrace the cause and feel it’s a great honour for them to defend their country and their people, which turns them into popular national heroes.

He, however, doesn't fall for it because he knows that there is someone who manipulates the minds of the soldiers from behind the scenes, the fort commander, the politician. That someone is the master puppeteer of it all, the Warlord, and the fort, all the killing and the suffering has been his creation. Yet nobody can see him.... Except He.

After He deliberately defies a superior officer, he is immediately imprisoned. In his cell, he has a dream, a vision of the past and the future. And as he wakes up, a visitor is there to see him. It is the Warlord. It is an encounter they both expected to happen at a certain point and now they finally meet. The Warlord tries to break Him, put him off his choice to stand up against the system, but He doesn’t react or respond.

He is then pardoned by the commander and sent on a mission to retrieve an enemy prisoner. When He and his patrol return to the fort with the hooded captive, He throws him amongst the drunken soldiers and musicians. He treats the captive violently, only to show everybody that this ‘enemy’ is, in fact, just like them, a human being, the same flesh and bone. With his actions, He is trying to wake the conscience and compassion of his friends and other soldiers.

This is his second rebellion, lethal in war times, as the war logic is completely opposite from the one in peace times: the enemy is just an enemy, not a human being and all enemies need to be eliminated. This time, His act is considered treason because it demoralizes the troops and as the prisoner escapes with precious information, this poses a real threat to the security of the fort. The sentence for treason is death.

He knew about the risks, yet he also knew that only by going all the way and putting his life on the line, he could change something. Only in this way, his friends and others may be able to actually see what the truth is, that behind this war, and all other conflicts and wars, lies the real enemy of humankind and life itself. And He was determined to let his friends see what He could see, to give them this new ‘eyesight’.

Having never made any choice themselves, his friends find themselves in horror playing at their friend's execution. But orders are orders and now that they have become soldiers, it is impossible for them to disobey their commander, it is too late for them to say no.

By not taking a stand, they ultimately do make a choice and become involuntary accomplices, co-executioners of their friend, totally impotent to change the course of the events. Once the bullets pierce the flesh, however, something happens, something changes for good…