Film Programme 21 October 2022 - Day)

Certain parrots are completely different from their peers. They love snow as well as the cold, harsh mountain climate of New Zealand. With great curiosity and ingenuity, they break into houses and rubbish bins, open locks and rob tools. These odd and oddly crafty birds even make new discoveries on ski slopes.

If you want to survive in the high mountains, you need really thick skin. Because on ice-covered peaks and dangerously steep slopes, the air can quickly become thin. This environment is not suitable for every kind of animal, nor for every plant. But it’s the perfect setting for Pia’s latest adventures!

Diego is the second eldest of five children. His father died last year. Since then, he has had to do the field work together with his older brother. But he also goes to school, unlike his parents and grandparents. Diego adores his young teacher, who is his role model, because Diego also wants to become a teacher.

The Tatra Mountains in southern Poland were once a wilderness of forests and rocks. Hundreds of years ago, robbers hid there, and nomads from the Balkans were looking for new pastures. Their descendants, the Gorals, have over time made wild nature their home and created their own world of traditions and customs. For a long time, they lived isolated from the outside world and fought for survival in this harsh mountain world.

Today, this magnificent landscape counts among the most famous holiday destinations in Switzerland. Huge mountains line the majestic Aletsch Glacier. Locals face the adventure of driving pasture cattle downhill, explore the glacier, run an electricity-free hotel, preserve and honour the tradition of Valais martial cows and keep the world’s most famous research station up and running. Preserving the world’s natural heritage – that’s what they’re all about.

Anna Hadzelek, Antonia Schlosser and Katharina Kestler – co-hosts of the popular Bayern 2 podcast “Bergfreundinnen” (Mountain Girlfriends) – traverse the Alps on their very own route and in the footsteps of the first female alpinists. Their route takes them on foot from Oberstdorf to Lake Como. Their community is constantly plugged in live via podcast and Instagram.

In 1939, Janusz Klarner reached the eastern summit of Mount Nanda Devi in the Himalayas – all that happens next seems a consequence of this act. The mountaineering hero recounts an avalanche of events like a terrible dream. A broken taboo cannot be forgotten in a country rebirthing within the new communist order.

Together, Frédéric Swierczynski and Sébastien Devrient want to go diving in the world’s highest lake at an altitude of almost 21,000 ft (6,400 m), on the border between Chile and Argentina. The adventure begins with medical trials in Marseilles, where hyperbaric chambers are adjusted to replicate the pressure at an altitude of 21,000 ft. Frédéric goes to dive in water cooled to a temperature of 3 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. Such a simulation has never been carried out before.

Sébastien Devrient received an Honourable Mention by the Jury for his film “Bylot Island” in 2014.

The travels of Italian writer Paolo Cognetti in the footsteps of the writers who most inspired him. The documentary explores the relationship between humans and wilderness during a journey that takes him to British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska. Along the way, he meets people currently living in the forest and explores the origins and controversies of their choice.

The “Odyssey” including the “Paciencia” line is considered the most difficult climbing route on the Eiger North Face. The first attempts on the 33-rope-length route began in 2009. Five years later, after an ordeal of almost two months, the first free ascent succeeded. In 2018, Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher repeated the route; it took them four days. Emulating the first ascenders’ climbing style, the so-called “big wall style”, they carried food, water, equipment and a portaledge across the wall.

At 8,690 ft (2,649 m), Mount Hochfrottspitze is the highest mountain in the Bavarian administrative district of Swabia and belongs to the well-known “Oberstdorf Triumvirate”. The imposing, rugged summit is located in the middle of the Allgäu Alps and surrounded by a fascinating and unique high mountain landscape – and yet it is not known to many. With spectacular footage, the film portrays Mount Hochfrottspitze and the people who live here.

Due to the Islamic Revolution, Puria Ravahi’s family had to leave Iran in 1980. 36 years later, two trips with a friend take him back there: in 2016 to Puria’s birthplace Tehran and with skis to Mount Damavand (18,605 ft / 5,671 m). In 2022, they explore the Zagros Mountains by means of ski touring, including many four-thousanders, and they travel on to Shiraz. Puria hopes to visit his father there.

In 2017, Puria Ravahi received the German Alpine Club’s Award for the Best Film in the category Mountain Experience for “Last Exit”.

“MASSIV TRAD ATTACK” combines the two worlds of alpinism and sport climbing and documents excitingly and bluntly the lengthy process of Martin Feistl climbing a route at difficulty level 8a+/b, which is actually secured with permanent bolts, yet he does so with only mobile and partly unconventional gear.

Impassioned mountaineer and climber Ralf Dujmovits was the first and only German to climb all 14 eight-thousanders. And yet, these records mean very little to him. The now 60-year-old and his wife Nancy take a road trip from his hometown of Bühl in the Black Forest to a climbing area in the Alb Valley. Companions such as top climbers Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Thomas Huber comment on his achievements and add dimension to his triumphs and defeats.

Valentine Fabre and Hillary Gerardi, two world-class athletes, are the first women to try to walk the Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt non-stop. For Valentine, the Haute Route has a deep personal meaning: Ten years ago, her husband Laurent had set the men’s record, shortly before he died in a mountaineering accident. For Valentine, completing the route would be the ultimate tribute to Laurent.

On a cold and snowy winter night, a young veterinarian must fight against the unexpected adversities of life to prove to herself and to a rugged old mountain farmer that she is capable of doing her job well. Obstetrics performed for Bufera, the lead cow in the stable, turns into a battle between life and death.

Iceland, the land of fire and ice, is one of the places with the highest concentration of waterfalls in the world and is one of the most popular destinations for extreme kayaking. However, the inaccessibility of its rivers and the harsh climate present challenges. Three friends want to explore rivers and waterfalls that have never been navigated before. And so, not knowing what lies ahead, surprises abound.

This film spans 18 years and documents dramatic changes on a high mountain pasture called “Eternal” on the westernmost border of Xinjiang, China: How do the last Mongolian shepherds there experience the difficult process of transitioning from a nomadic to a sedentary way of life?

During the shooting of their new film, two friends quickly realise that the reality on a mountain with temperatures plummeting to minus 18 degrees Celsius confronts them with problems they had not anticipated during the planning period at home. Technical as well as physical challenges force the friends to cancel their project. After a freezing cold night, the sun reappears above the horizon, and their motivation gradually returns. The two realise that nature had a different plan for them all along and decide to follow this new path.

The most important muscle for climbing and bouldering is the brain. With the help of willpower, you can push your boundary vertically and overcome it. This is a sport in which the smallest details gain the greatest importance and decide whether you win the game against gravity. For Erdene Otgonpurev, this is a philosophy of life – be it in the Harz or Langenstein nature reserves, on the Bodenstein cliffs in the Ith nature reserve or in the bouldering hall.

Whether indoor climbing, sport climbing in the climbing garden or alpine climbing: Vertical movement is the crowning glory of mountaineering – be it with or without disabilities. A short film about the H3 handicapped climbing group named “Hoch Hinaus” from Weyarn.