The caustic, bohemian Daniele Kihlgren is the rebellious third child of a wealthy family of cement industry magnates.
In the late 90s, Daniele Kihlgren rides his motorbike to Santo Stefano di Sessanio, a medieval village perched on top of the rugged mountains of Abruzzi. It is love at first sight.
He realizes that in a place like that he can fulfil an old dream of his –- perfectly restoring a run-down medieval town, and turning it into a hotel. The bottom line is to make a profit from the conservation of the landscape rather than from its destruction, as is so often the case in Italy.
The idea is good and it works. Tourists start flocking to Santo Stefano. Emboldened by his success, Daniele Kihlgren buys houses in other old villages, and develops a similar plan for the Sassi of Matera.
However, he has more an artistic than an entrepreneurial temperament. A careless financial management, combined with an almost obsessive perfectionism, soon causes trouble.
In the unique, splendid scenery of Italy’s hidden treasures, director and d.o.p. Alessandro Soetje tells the story of a man who, like his own country, has a big heart but perhaps cannot love himself.
alpenway.com/k
Partner
With the support of
Giunta Regionale Abruzzo –
Servizio Beni e Attività Culturali
Produced by
Alpenway Media GmbH in association with
Nantucket
Festival
Worldfest Houston 2020 – Bronze Remi Award
Valdarno Cinema Film Festival 2019 – Premio Diari di Cineclub
Cervino Cinemountain 2019
Ischia Film Festival 2019
Trento Film Festival 2019
Docudì – Concorso di cinema documentario 2019
Sondrio Festival 2018
Festival internazionale FrontDOC Aosta 2018
Montreal World Film Festival 2018
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Daniele Kihlgren – Founder Sextantio Project
Graduated with honors in epistemology of Human Sciences and Psychology, after an unsatisfying approach to the academic milieu, he launches himself in the business field.
Cruising the Abruzzo mountains, he discovers the village of Santo Stefano di Sessanio and decides to set-up a Minor World Heritage’s project, Sextantio Albergo Diffuso in Santo Stefano di Sessanio and Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita in Matera (
www.sextantio.it), for which he has been awarded a PhD Honoris Causa by the Roma Tor Vergata University in 2016 for its cultural and entrepreneurial value.
At the same time begins his humanitarian engagement in Africa, including the construction of a children’s hospital in Congo and a health insurance project for Rwandan poor.
In 2019 he was included in the list of the 25 most influential personalities who have changed the way of traveling by Condé Nast Traveler magazine.
In May 2022 he gave birth to the Huts Project on the Nkombo island, Lake Kivu, Rwanda (
www.sextantiorwanda.com), whose profits will be used to grant the health insurance to poor people that can die with diseases easily treatable at negligible costs. The intervention will be clinically evaluated in collaboration with the San Raffaele Hospital.
Daniele Kihlgren:
press
https://sextantio.press
