Hugo Pratt, trait pour trait

This profile of comic book artist Hugo Pratt looks back over a lifetime of travels, adventures, mysteries and excesses. Born Ugo Prat in Italy in 1927, he was taken by his father at a young age to Ethiopia, at the time occupied by Mussolini’s troops. He was soon fascinated by Africa’s great open spaces, as he would later by those of America and the world of the western. Corto Maltese, his celebrated hero who lives in a world of weapons and magic, represents a turning point in the history of comics. Travelling to Italy, Ethiopia, Argentine, Amazonia, Brazil, London, Paris and Lausanne, this poetic and inventive documentary by Thierry Thomas follows the trail of Hugo Pratt and the thousands of frames he has drawn.