Sariri(2024)

While filming an advertisement, some extreme sports enthusiasts unwittingly stop a group of terrorists.

Les Etoiles de Midi is an engaging docudrama about some of the more spectacular exploits of French mountain climbers over the last several decades. In one re-enacted story, there is a wartime escape through the mountains, and in another, a daring rescue of a pair of climbers who had been missing. The actors themselves are adept at the sport of climbing, and they give the scenes an immediacy and real daring that brings the stories alive. A combination of their acrobatics and skill and the outstanding episodes in the history of French climbing creates a winning 78 minutes.

In 1954, a German-Austrian expedition led by Mathias Rebitsch set off for the difficult-to-access Karakoram Mountains, geographically north of the Himalayas. They come across the Hunza, a people who live in the valley of the same name and believe they are descended from the soldiers of Alexander the Great. The documentary conveys impressions of the poor life of the Hunza people, the harvest, a court hearing, festivals and the children's everyday school life. Finally, the expedition sets off again and sets up its main camp on the moraine ridge of a glacier, where they measure the glacier and the earth's magnetic field. Finally, some men from the research community set off for a sub-peak of Batura.

In 2004, the French Soulflyer team of Loic Jean-Albert, Val Montant and Pierre Desmet aimed to fly over many of the planet's emblematic summits. The rides in this film combine snow, mountains and high altitude with BASE jumping, wing suits, skydiving, and skiing – on Mont Blanc on the French-Italian border, and on Mount Fuji in Japan.

Gaston Rébuffat is part of the history of mountaineering. Marseillais prodigy, high mountain guide of the Chamonix guide company and famous for the ascent of the most famous north faces: some are 1st rehearsals, others 1st French or 1st as a guide. Filmed by Georges Tairraz, this masterpiece released in 1955 reveals the beauty of effort and the pleasure of sharing in the mountains. Apart from the feat, the mountains are not there to satisfy egocentric ambitions. A classic !

Meeting in Chamonix with Éric Escoffier, famous mountaineer of the 80s, victim of a car accident in September 1987. Victim of multiple fractures and total paralysis on his left side, Escoffier managed to walk again, despite the doctors' pessimistic prognoses... The commentary on images of Éric Escoffier in his daily life in Chamonix and archive images and photographs alternates with archive documents, extracts from the films "Profession grimpeur" by Philippe Lallet and "Face nord" by Jean Afanassieff as well as interviews with the protagonist, Rémi Éric Escoffier and Michel Garcia. Great among the greatest, Éric Escoffier, who disappeared in the mountains at Broad Peak on July 29, 1998, will never have been an ordinary man.

What compels a man to push the limits of what is attainable ever higher? After thirty years of relentless struggle with the highest peaks on earth, Marc Batard has finally found the answers to these questions. He had to reach the summit of Everest twice, once shattering the record for fastest time in 24 hours without oxygen, and climb the most difficult faces of the Alps to glimpse the path to inner healing. It was through physical suffering that he was able to confront the pain of his soul. He was finally able to talk about the violence of his childhood, the shock he carried like a ball and chain for decades. Having completed his summit therapy, Marc Batard tells his story in this documentary by Gilles Perret.

Vertical Opera is a documentary film directed by Jean-Paul Janssen, with climbers Patrick Edlinger and Jean-Paul Lemercier in the Gorges du Verdon. The film opens with a training sequence of Patrick Edlinger then he links the routes with Jean-Paul Lemercier "L'Ange en décongelation" (7a), in which he falls voluntarily to demonstrate the usefulness of the rope, then "Le Septième Saut" (7b+). Finally, the final scene, an anthology, consists of a close-up of Edlinger who climbs free solo and barefoot the route "Débiloff", still in the Verdon, above hundreds of meters of void, all to lyrical music. It is "Wie Furchtsam Wankten Meine Schritte", the aria for alto voice from Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata BWV 33, music not unrelated to the subject of the documentary: "How faltering and fearful my steps were".

Transcending cultural barriers and consistently going against the grain, female Nepali climber Pasang Lhamu Sherpa attempted to summit Everest four times in the early nineties. Although she was not allowed to attend school as a child, Pasang did not let that stop her from pursuing her dreams. After founding her own trekking company in Kathmandu, she blazed a trail for Nepali women via her efforts to summit Everest. Proving how big you can dream and how far you can go to achieve those dreams, she left a legacy not only for the family she has left behind, but for the myriad women following in her footsteps.

Hunters have disappeared from wildlands without a trace for hundreds of years. David Paulides presents the haunting true stories of hunters experiencing the unexplainable in the woods of North America.