Artist, anarchist, drop-out, sans papiers: Giovanni Segantini was all of this. He created, usually under the open sky, monumental works in the idealised image of nature of an alpine landscape. In the course of his lifetime he climbed ever higher in quest of more light. He died at the age of 41 in an alpine hut at 2700m in the Engadine. The film provides insight into his difficult childhood and boyhood, shares his inner processes and crises as a painter, as well as his contradictory dealings with motherly love and eroticism – and ultimately his desperate struggle against death.
«In this film two gifted light magicians have come together. One with a brush and oil paint, the other with his eye on the eyepiece. "Segantini" is one of the last of about 130 films that Pio Corradi made as a cameraman. I was lucky enough to work with him on my last six films.»
― Fredi M. Murer