ELIZA KUBARSKA STARTS SHOOTING NEXT FILM
Eliza Kubarska, the author of the award-winning documentary film "K2. Touching the Sky" starts shooting her next mountain project, entitled "The Wall of Shadows," this February. The team sets out with the expedition of the well-known alpinist Marcin Tomaszewski to one of the most difficult mountains in the world.
In the Himalayas of far eastern Nepal, there is one of the last holy mountains of the Sherpa, the mountain of Jannu, reaching almost 8 000 metres (also known as Khumbakarna), famous for its unconquered eastern wall.
The international expedition to Jannu (7710 m) consists of outstanding Russian alpinists Dmitry Golovchenko and Sergey Nilov, twice awarded for their alpinist achievements the alpinist equivalent of the Academy Award, the so-called Piolet d'Or. On the other hand, Marcin Tomaszewski, who won the Kolosy awards many times, and was nominated for the Piolet d'Or several times, is undoubtedly one of the best Polish alpinists, and can boast the exploration of the most difficult mountains in the world, beginning from Patagonia and Karakoram to Greenland and Baffin Island.
Tomaszewski's small team intends to take a totally different path, made in the alpine style, on the virgin wall of Jannu. If their attempt is successful, the expedition will go down in the history of international Himalayanism.
In the first stage of the expedition, the alpinists will be accompanied by a Sherpa family. According to the local beliefs, the peak of Jannu is inhabited by the gods and humans have no right to trespass on their territory. However, the illiterate Nada Sherpa, the father of three children, decides to take part in the expedition. He has been working as a high altitude porter for 20 years. Every year, he risks his life by stretching the fixed guide ropes on dangerous eight-thousanders - on Everest, Kanchendzondz and Cho Oyu. This time, he has only one purpose: he wants to earn the money to pay for the school for his youngest son.
Marcin Tomaszewski, one of the main protagonists of the film, is also a father. He will have to face not only the terrifying eastern wall of Jannu but also the baggage of his past. As a parent, he is torn between his need to live in the mountains and the responsibility for his family, says Eliza Kubarska, the director of the film, and adds:
As a filmmaker, I am fascinated by the psychological, human side of the Himalayan expeditions. In my previous film "K2. Touching the Sky," I told the story of the children of the Himalayan mountaineers who died in the Karakoram mountains. "The Wall of Shadows" is supposed to be a film which delves deeper into the phenomenon of the high-mountain expeditions, but also a story about human relationships with the mighty nature in the background, explains Kubarska, who as an alpinist can herself boast some mountain explorations.
The film is made as an international, Polish-German-Swiss co-production. The main producer is Monika Braid, who has been co-operating with the director Eliza Kubarska for several years. This female team can boast two successful productions, the aforementioned "K2. Touching the Sky" (the winner of 17 awards at international festivals) and "Badjao. Under Water"- awards and special mentions at the festivals in Palm Springs and in Los Angeles in the USA, at the Hot Docs in Canada and at the Planet Doc Review in Warsaw. "The Wall of Shadows" is made with the participation of the prestigious French-German television channel ARTE/ZDF and Telewizja Polska S.A. The film will be shot at the altitude of over 5000 metres. The cinematographer is the award-winning cameraman and director Piotr Rosołowski, the winner of the awards at, among others, the festival in Venice for the film "The Prince and the Dybbuk," the co-author of the Academy Award-nominated film "Rabbit a la Berlin") and Keith Partridge (the cinematographer of the famous film "Touching the Void" or the flagship BBC show "Human Planet," for which he won the international Emmy award). The sound editors are Franciszek Kozłowski and Zosia Moruś.
The premiere of the film is planned for the beginning of 2020.