Stories with a Capital Letter at the 12th Festival...

The Mountain Film Festival delights Slovenian audiences every year with renowned guests from the world of alpinism and climbing – and it will be the same this year, when the Italian-Slovenian duo Nives Meroi and Roman Benet, the German professional alpinist and ice climber Ines Papert, and the Slovenian alpinism legend and festival director Silvo Karo will give lectures in Ljubljana. In addition to the lectures, between February 26 and March 4 in Ljubljana, Domžale, Celje, and Mojstrana, 35 selected films about alpinism, climbing, adventure, mountain nature, and culture will be shown, including six Slovenian ones.



Nives Meroi and Roman Benet have together climbed all fourteen eight-thousanders, overcoming Roman's illness in between, which required two bone marrow transplants – their fifteenth eight-thousander. Not only at the lecture, but their story can also be discovered in the film Nives Meroi and Roman Benet: 14 + 1. German alpinist Ines Papert is not only one of the world's best female alpinists, recently partnering with Slovenian alpinist Luka Lindic, and a multiple world champion in ice climbing, but also a mother, which significantly shapes her endeavors in the vertical world. The protagonist of Slovenian alpinism's golden age, Silvo Karo – one of the most successful and daring conquerors of Patagonian mountains in their entire history, and alongside Franček Knez and Janez Jeglič - Johan a member of the legendary three musketeers – is rounding off his 40-year rich alpinist career with his autobiography Alpinist published this year.



Nives Meroi and Roman Benet: On Top. Together

The narrative begins on the demanding Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world. This is a story of life, illness, and personal growth. In 2009, Nives is competing for the title of the first woman in the world to summit all 14 eight-thousanders. On the twelfth "Kanchen", as always, she climbs roped with her husband Roman. Below the summit, he feels unwell and stops. Nives unhesitatingly sets aside her goal to stand by him. Their toughest challenge awaits: Roman is gravely ill. The first therapies fail, the bone marrow transplant doesn't help, they spend long months in the hospital waiting for hope, and all seems lost until the second transplant finally takes effect. Roman survives! Love for the mountains ultimately triumphs over the pain. In 2014 they climb Kanchenjunga, two years later Makalu, and on May 11, 2017, Annapurna. Their final joint summit. Nives and Roman are the first couple and the first roped pair to climb all 14 eight-thousanders together; consistently without supplemental oxygen and without high-altitude porters.



Ines Papert: Between Storm and Silence

Ines Papert, one of the world's best alpinists, will take us on an exciting exploration of her diverse alpinist feats. Following legends' footsteps, she tackled a demanding Patagonian wall, ventured into the Canadian wilderness with her son, and repeated one of the hardest mixed routes in the high mountains. We will relive her free ascents on Veliki Cini and the first ascent of a route on the wall of Mt. Waddington in Canada. Ines chooses no shortcuts; with her iron will, she pushes the limits of the possible and continually shows us what it means to be an extreme climber and a mother.



Silvo Karo: 40 Years Alpinist

The rock'n'roll generation representative brought energy and rhythm to the walls. Dedication, boldness, passion, and sincere friendship forged the three musketeers roped team – Franček Knez, Janez Jeglič, and Silvo Karo. The great walls of Fitz Roy, Cerro Torre, Torre Egger, and Bhagirathi most marked his alpinist career, spanning from Himalayan 8000ers to 8a sport climbs. He faithfully followed modern trends in elite alpinism, leading him to light and fast. His alpinist path took him from the romantic analog seventies to the speedy digital years of the new millennium, from rural countryside to brutal Patagonian storms, vast Himalayan heights, sunlit granite chimneys of Karakoram granite, Greenland's horizon, Indian monsoons, Yosemite's vertical walls, and the beautiful Julian Alps.



For twelve years, the Mountain Film Festival has proudly brought mountains to the valley on the big screen. This year, it offers viewers 35 films from 19 countries in four categories: alpinism, climbing, mountain nature and culture, and mountains, sports, and adventure; many already awarded at foreign film festivals. In Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana, Mestni kino Domžale, Mestni kino Metropol in Celje, and Slovenski planinski muzej in Mojstrana, from February 26 to March 4, a week of inspiring stories awaits about individuals pushing boundaries in climbing and alpinism, mysterious mountain cultures and endangered species, majestic mountain images, breathtaking adventures, and strong conservation messages from the mountain world treasury. The films will be judged by a three-member international jury: Polish director Paweł Wysoczański, also a recipient of numerous awards worldwide, director of the Mountain Film Festival in South Korea Billy Choi, and excellent Slovenian climber Andrej Grmovšek.



Among the selected film lineup are also six Slovenian films, one in Italian production but by RAI Slovenian editorial journalist Valentina Valenčič about Nives Meroi and Roman Benet as the first couple to conquer all eight-thousanders by fair means (without porters, alpine style, without supplemental oxygen, and without fixed ropes), titled Nives Meroi and Roman Benet: 14 + 1, as their fifteenth eight-thousander was Roman's illness. Proti horizontu is the big-screen adventure feat of Miha Podgornik and Ivica Kostelić about crossing Greenland on skis; the film Zadnji ledeni lovci by Rožle Bregar and the late director Jure Breceljnik tells of the disappearing Inuit culture on eastern Greenland; the short alpinist film Mogoče by Monika Novak speaks of life in base camp, climbing, uncertainty, people, and friendship on the expedition of Aleš Česen, Urban Novak, and Marko Prezelj to the Indian Himalaya. We will also see the documentary-feature film Po stezi pastirjev in tekačev by Peter Vrčkovnik, depicting unique Velika planina as the coexistence of cultural heritage and sports, while Odčarani kino by Eva Pivač and Matjaž Pinter takes us to three remote mountain villages in western Nepal, where at the end of the seventies the famous ethnographic film Šamani slepe dežele was made.