MEETINGS WITH MOUNTAIN FILM GRAND PRIX FOR "JUREK"
On September 6 ended the 11th edition of the Mountain Film Meetings. "Jurek" by Paweł Wysoczański won the main award in the international film competition.
Great Wooden Mountain and cash prize amounting to 4 000 PLN went to the documentary film "Jurek" by Paweł Wysoczański. The jury appreciated the film for its masterly, multidimensional story about Jurek and his times. The award givers add that the film is a beautiful example of uniting the important Polish history from the times of Polish People's Republic and the great climbing achievements of the outstanding and exceptional Pole.
On 24 October 1989, Jerzy Kukuczka dies during the Lhotse expedition. It was the first time when he went to the Himalayas with money, equipment, and as a really famous person. The documentary by Paweł Wysoczański does not, however, concentrate on the mystery of the Himalayan mountaineer's death. It shows a person who climbs up, higher and higher - literally, but also metaphorically and symbolically. From a bootblack to a millionaire, from a socialist worker to an international media star, from the man who climbs without any money and equipment to the real competitor of Reinhold Messner in the competition to climb the Crown of the Himalayas and the Karakoram. Interviews with family and friends, archive materials, photographs, recordings, excerpts from television programmes and interviews make up the portrait of the Himalayan mountaineers in 1980s. It is also the image of the times in which they lived - hard and colourful at the same time, when idealism was more valued than fame.