Hugo Pratt returns to Venice with "A Yearning to be of no use"

From Africa to Argentina, all the way to Venice and Switzerland. The journey recounted by Stefano Knuchel in his documentary trilogy which concludes with "Hugo in Venice – A Yearning to be of no use", produced by Fiumi Film, spans nearly Hugo Pratt’s entire life. The new film will be presented in Venice on Saturday, September 12, at 3:00 p.m., at the Palazzo del Casinò on the Lido, as part of a tribute to Hugo Pratt organized by the Venice Biennale in collaboration with the International Critics’ Week and the Giornate degli Autori.

The project began in 2009 with “Hugo in Africa,” dedicated to Pratt’s childhood in East Africa, and continued with “Hugo in Argentina,” dedicated to the decade the artist spent in South America. With Hugo in Venice, Knuchel thus completes a journey centered on three lesser-known periods in Pratt’s life, tracing his transformation as a man, a traveler, and finally, an artist.

While the first chapter recounted his childhood in Africa and his relationship with his father, and the second focused on his experience in Argentina and the discovery of his artistic identity, the third chapter looks primarily at his later years. Venice remains the symbolic starting point, but it is Switzerland, above all, that occupies a central place in the narrative: the country where Pratt decided to settle after a life spent traveling between continents, collecting books, images, memories, and inspirations from all over the world in his library.

Of particular importance is his connection to the Canton of Ticino and to Hermann Hesse. Pratt’s journey through the Swiss cantons, in search of local symbols and traditions, also takes him to Ticino and to Montagnola, to Hesse’s home. This experience gave rise to one of the most significant chapters in the Corto Maltese saga, “Le Elvetiche,” published in 1988. The album, set largely between Montagnola and the literary and esoteric world of Switzerland, is key to understanding the final phase of Pratt’s artistic exploration.

“The film was made in Ticino, and the crew is overwhelmingly from Ticino,” Stefano Knuchel emphasizes. Hugo in Venice is, in fact, a 100% Swiss film, with a strong Swiss-Italian component. Behind the production is a team in which the key creative and technical roles are entrusted to Swiss-Italian professionals: Zeno Gabaglio composed the score, Ariel Salati handled cinematography, and Stefano Knuchel himself edited the film. The result is a project that, while telling the story of an international figure like Hugo Pratt, was conceived and developed largely thanks to local talent and expertise.

The project by Knuchel and Fiumi Film was also supported by the Ticino Film Commission, confirming the role of Italian-speaking Switzerland in the production of a documentary that spans various places and periods in Pratt’s life.

Anticipation for the Venice screening is already high. “Tickets sold out in three hours in Venice. The Sala Casinò is a prestigious venue, and we couldn’t have asked for a better setting for this screening,” says the producer. This enthusiastic reception attests to the enduring interest in Hugo Pratt and in a work that, thirty years after his passing, continues to inspire new interpretations.

With Il desiderio di essere inutile – Hugo a Venezia, Knuchel’s trilogy thus returns to its protagonist after having chronicled his childhood in Africa and his formative years in Argentina. The journey concludes in Switzerland, amid Grandvaux’s books, the evocative atmosphere of Montagnola, and the symbolic world of Le Elvetiche. It is here that Pratt, after traveling the world, seems to find the ideal place to transform his experience into something destined to outlive him: his work.