At dawn on 16 October 1944, relay girl Aurora Vuillerminaz bid farewell to her beloved mountains, before bravely facing the fascist firing squad in the Villeneuve cemetery. She was arrested during her last mission, intent on leading a group of communist exiles from the Swiss border towards the Cogne Valley, where her comrades from the Verraz gang were waiting for her. Despite a night of violent interrogation, she did not reveal any information to the fascist soldiers. Only one partisan fortuitously survives the massacre, and it is up to him to entrust this memory to the pages of a diary. Starting from the tangible traces in the present, five female voices outline the figure of Lola, a passionate partisan killed at only 22 years of age, reconstructing the ascents and descents, the dangers and challenges that marked her last journey. The story is completed by precious archive material, interwoven with animated parts that bring them to life. Even today, the echo of Lola’s exploits and her Resistance values still resounds in the mountains of the Aosta Valley.
Chiara Zoja (Aosta, 2004) finished high school in classical studies and is currently studying film at DAMS in Turin. She is making her debut as an author and director with the short film Prima dell’Aurora, winner of the second prize in the Match and Catch ideas competition organised by the Film Commission Vallée d’Aoste.