Powerful documentary The Wall of Shadows takes top prize at Norwegian film festival
A documentary about the fate of a Sherpa family asked to take a group of westerners up a holy mountain has won the the documentary film category at the Bergen International Film Festival in Norway.
In The Wall of Shadows by Eliza Kubarska and Monika Braid, the Sherpa family breaks a sacred taboo by agreeing to lead the group up the Kumbhakarna Mountain so that they can earn money for their son's school and to save him from the degrading work of a porter.
A Sherpa family breaks a sacred taboo by agreeing to lead the group up the Kumbhakarna Mountain so that they can earn money for their son's school and to save him from the degrading work of a porter.
Three leading alpinists, the outstanding Polish climber Marcin Tomaszewski and two-time winners of the climbing Oscar (Golden Ice Axe) Dmitry Golovchenko and Sergei Nilov from Russia, take part in the expedition on the eastern face of the mountain which, at 7,400 metres, is one of the most difficult challenges in alpinism today.
The Polish Film Institute, which co-financed the production of the film, said: "The climb of mountaineers turned out to be so ambitious and risky that it was observed by the media from all over the world."
The Wall of Shadows' had its world premiere at the Hot Docs festival in May this year.
The Wall of Shadows' had its world premiere at the Hot Docs festival in May this year, and Polish viewers were able to see it for the first time during the 17th Millennium Docs Against Gravity festival.
The film is the third collaboration between director Eliza Kubarska and producer Monika Braid and is a Polish-German-Swiss co-production.
The director of photography is award-winning director, screenwriter and cinematographer Piotr Rosołowski, who is also the co-author of the script.
To read our interview with director Eliza Kubarska click here.
