Finding Thule is a feature length documentary that tells the story of Italian engineer-turned-explorer Giancarlo Gianazza, who during the course of several years sets out to a remote region of central Iceland on a quest to find the Holy Grail. According to his theories, mainly derived from clues he finds hidden inside the paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli and Raphael, the whereabouts of the treasure would be encoded in the numerical structure of the epic poem The Divine Comedy, written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321.

It is in Botticelli’s Primavera that Gianazza finds a striking similarity with the last 6 songs (canti) of Dante’s Purgatorio – the second book of the trilogy dealing with Dante’s imaginary ascent to paradise, passing through Hell and Purgatory. Gianazza takes this journey literally becoming convinced that Dante is giving the geographical coordinates of a precise location in Iceland where he travels every year since 2004 hoping to unearth a mysterious treasure: the lost treasure of the Knights Templar.

In 2014, young filmmaker Sofia E. Rovati joins Gianazza and his team with the intention of documenting the archaeological endeavour. Throughout the years the project becomes a larger-than-life adventure into which the filmmaker is inevitably drawn. Stepping in front of the camera, Sofia starts noticing and tracing parallels between her personal journey and the autobiographical journey of Dante. The lines between reality and fiction start to blur as the characters of the Divine Comedy come alive and this real-life treasure hunt in Iceland’s ethereal landscape turns into a discovery of what lies within.

https://findingthule.co.uk/