North Face

A German film set in the Alps. The year is 1936. The Berlin Olympics are coming. The north face of the Eiger has not been climbed. Many have tried and died. The German press has made it a national matter. A German must take the wall. Toni and Andi are two Bavarian climbers. Soldiers in the army, and very good on rock. A newspaper comes looking for them. They have the equipment and support is offered. The two refuse. Then they go on their own. Two Austrians are on the wall at the same time. From there the film is a climb. Rope, rock, ice and falling stone. There is a hotel below. Journalists watch through telescopes, eat hot food, and file copy. Luise assists a photographer. She is from the same town as Toni and they were children together. The narrative keeps setting the two places side by side: men freezing on the wall and glasses on the terrace. The weather breaks. Four men are trapped. What the narrative is interested in is not climbing but spectators: its idea is that these men's deaths are consumed below as a show, and that nobody actually goes to help. There is a rescue attempt but it is late and inadequate. The last section takes place on a rope. A man hangs on the wall with a few metres between him and the rescue party. The events are real. The 1936 attempt and its outcome are in the historical record. It was filmed on real mountains and on ice sets built in a studio. The actors worked in the cold and it shows in the images. The colour is grey, blue and white. There is almost none of it. Philipp Stölzl directed. Benno Fürmann, Florian Lukas, Johanna Wokalek and Simon Schwarz are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes mountaineering films and productions based on real events. Who it is not for: anyone looking for hope; the ending is known from the start and the narrative consoles nowhere.