We meet our protagonist Mateo intensely training. His parents are supportive through thier concern, he clearly is about to undertake something extremely dangerous, and seemingly not for the first time. He is about to climb Annapurna - one of the fabled eight-thousanders - mountains higher than 8000 metres. He is shown at one with the elements at the start of his climb - he is clearly profoundly touched and motivated by the prospect of being part of and conquering nature.
After a bad fall he is found uncocnious by another climber, female, English speaking Ione. He is revived and cared for by Ione, who turns out to be an accomplished, famous climber in the community. A fair bit of the film's time is spent with them recovering him in a hut where they talk about whether he belongs on the mountain or not. He is shown to be very determined, almost foolhardy in her opinion. Eventually he explains he is climbing in the honour of his girlfriend who died, which turns out to hold significance to both characters. He explains that he has climbed everest, but a partiular summit that all the tourists do - she is not impressed. She on the other hand has done all 14 of the 8 thousanders and feels like there is nothing left to complete. Climbing has been her life, and her identity, and she has come to the end of the journey.
I found the film effectively executed in many ways. It does a good job of putting you on the mountain with Mateo in a very short amount of time. He starts off alone in terrible conditions, with only a fool's hope of rescue. You do feel the danger which is impressive and crucial to the film's effect. At some points it feels like an in depth character study of two people who've decided to pit themselves against some of the toughest odds a human can. At others it can be playful in tone, or a cautionary tale. It has touching moments, especially a heartbreaking phone call to Mateo's parents as he lays gravely unwell in Ione's arms. It is good looking, well shot film with stunning photography, and it is lean at 82 minutes with no more than two characters for most of it (three including Lurra the dog). Like a climber, it carries no unnecessary weight - in fact I believe there was only ambient noise, no soundtrack or score I realised late on.
4 out of 5
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