Mojstrana Squirrels and Wanda Rutkiewicz open...

Mojstrana Squirrels and Wanda Rutkiewicz open the 19th Mountain Film Festival.

The 19th Mountain Film Festival will open on February 17 at 8 p.m. in Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana with a film portrait of the greatest Himalayan alpinist of all time, Polish climber Wanda Rutkiewicz, while the first festival event on the same day at 4 p.m. will be the presentation of the book Mojstrana Squirrels. Between February 17 and 22, 32 climbing, mountaineering, adventure, and films about mountain nature and culture will be screened in Ljubljana, Domžale, and Radovljica, with a supporting program featuring ten mountaineering and travel lectures, book presentations, and discussions.

The 19th Mountain Film Festival will open with the film Wanda Rutkiewicz: The Last Expedition by Polish director Eliza Kubarska, a film portrait of the greatest Himalayan alpinist of all time, who achieved incredible successes and then mysteriously disappeared on her ninth eight-thousander, Kanchenjunga. In Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana, Mestni kino Domžale, and Linhartova dvorana in Radovljica, 32 mountain films from February 17 to 22 will be shown, a select choice from 85 submitted films from all corners of the world. Seven will be mountaineering, nine climbing, seven about mountains, sports, and adventure, and nine in the mountain nature and culture category. The films will be judged by an international festival jury: Bulgarian journalist and climber Tanya Ivanova, Slovenian publicist and filmmaker Mojca Volkar Trobevšek, and Swiss director and alpinist Fulvio Mariani.

One of the highlights of the rich supporting program will be a lecture by Slovenian alpinists Ana Baumgartner, Urša Kešar, Anja Petek, and Patricija Verdev, who will relive memories of the notable Himalayan expedition to Lalung I; American alpinist Jackson Marvell will present his ice axe award-winning ascent in the mighty north face of Jannu; top Slovak climber Miška Izakovičová will share her exceptional feats on big walls. Marija and Andrej Štremfelj will vividly relive the Great Himalayan Trail, which they described in the book The Power of the Night is in the Light of the Stars; Matjaž Jeran will present a family trek in Pakistan. Vladimir Habjan and climbing legends Klavdij Mlekuž, Janko Ažman, Janez Brojan, and Janez Dovžan will present the book Mojstrana Squirrels; Alenka Klinar her literary debut Along the Rope to the Light; Iztok Tomazin and Tomo Virk the book Naveza; Rožle Bregar and Rok Rozman the kayaking guide Soča from Source to Sea and the short film Trnki, Rolls, and Reality on the Soča. The film Czech Hut by Ladislav Jirášek about Czech-Slovene mountaineering cooperation will also be shown.

“If I were to weigh this year’s festival, it shows 30 hours of program, one-third of which is content related to mountaineering culture in words, books, and images. The rest are film stories that take us into the world of love for mountains, the magic of nature, the power of human will, and unstoppable exploratory spirit. I am pleased with the excellent film response to this year’s festival; we received as many as 85 films. This is clear proof that mountain film production has revived after the COVID drought. If I translate the 19th Mountain Film Festival into mountaineering language, I conclude that with the 19th pitch we are already high on the wall – and there is no way back,” emphasizes the director and founder of the Mountain Film Festival, Silvo Karo.

Among the mountaineering stories on the big screen, Nuptse: Touching the Intangible stands out, in which excellent French alpinists Hélias Millerioux, Frédéric Degoulet, and Benjamin Guigonnet will take viewers to the heart of the Himalayas, to a new extreme route in the legendary south face of Nuptse. The Spanish film Conquerors of Everest is a clear reminder that commercial expeditions are turning the Himalayas into waste, posing a serious environmental problem; Ascent of Meru is an insightful documentary about Indian alpinists who in 2023 made the first ascent via the west face of Meru in the Himalayas. The American film Jamie Logan: All or Nothing is the story of the top mountaineering career of Jim Logan, who today as a woman recalls her climbing highlights. South American films have been rare at the festival in the past; this time five come from Chile, including Andean Ice, which showcases the beauties of this narrow and long country through ice climbing. Slovak director Pavol Barabas, one of the most esteemed mountain filmmakers, will be present this time with the short film Work in the Mountains about the jubilee of mountain guides in the High Tatras.

Climbing films have also been produced worldwide, including in Angola, where a small artificial wall in the Angolan village of Cumbira changes children’s world, and climbing becomes their Disneyland. The film Path Divisadero takes you to the beautiful Chilean climbing paradise of Coyhaique, a true natural wonder. Festival staples are American films from the Reel Rock series, this year five: Puzzle with Brette Harrington in Canada, Climbing Doesn’t Die with Matt Groom in Ukraine, Follow Your Heart with Sachie Ammo in Japan, Jirishanca with Josh Wharton and Vince Anderson in the Peruvian Andes, and That, Old Man with Angie Scarth-Johnson and Hazel Findlay in Mallorca. In the Canadian film Mataperra, we follow Cuban Yeldo del Carmen through her two passions: climbing and dance. With black-and-white poetic scenes, the Bulgarian climbing film Night Shift delights.

The mountains, sports, and adventure category also brings the longest festival product – the feature film Alfa, a Dutch-Swiss-Slovenian co-production, mostly filmed in Slovenian mountains, with father and son as main actors and their complicated relationship. French Wild Days is a film narrative about four friends from Savoie on a 50-day self-sufficient expedition in the Denali massif in Alaska; the French-Argentine-Chilean film Pachamama is a snowboarding-skiing adventure in Patagonia.

Films about mountain nature and culture are also geographically very diverse. The Colombian film Warriors is the story of seven girls with difficult life trials but significant mountaineering victories; the French film Qivitoq takes the audience among children on the east coast of Greenland; the Italian film Sadpara to the heart of Pakistani mountains. My Sweden: Wilderness in the Grip of Change brings breathtaking nature and wildlife of this northern country, while the Chilean documentary Black Lagoon is about an Andean lake that has been the most important source of drinking water for nearly half of Chileans for 150 years.