In Paolo Cognetti's Le otto montagne, the narrator ruminates, "If the point at which you immerse yourself in the river is the present...then the past is the water that has flowed past you." The Eight Mountains, an adaptation of Cognetti's novel written by the author alongside directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, follows Pietro (Luca Marinelli) from adolescence to adulthood and the film is like the river Cognetti writes about. Like the book it's based on, The Eight Mountains is a contemplative film, one that uses its lengthy runtime to settle in and take you through the four or so decades in which it tracks Pietro's relationship with Bruno (Alessandro Borghi), a friendship that is achingly pure even as outside forces alter the course of it.

Pietro and Bruno meet one summer in the Italian Alps. The pair come from two vastly different backgrounds: Pietro's family is...