Film Festival 09 - North Face
North Face
Nordwand, Germany 2008, 121m
Director: Philipp Stoelzl
Festivals: Locarno, Pusan 2008
"A mountaineering adventure more tense, more edge-of-the-seat
suspenseful, than Touching the Void? Almost incredibly, this German
drama, based on a true story, is that film. Benno Fuermann and
Florian Lukas play a pair of ace climbers who in July 1936, amid
the rabble-rousing propaganda of the Nazis, attempt to scale the
north face of the Eiger, otherwise known as the 'murder wall'&
Writer-director Philipp Stoelzl evokes a keen sense of period in
setting up the story, but once it switches to the mountain face,
with avalanches and bitter weather looming ominously, the film
becomes as taut as a holding rope." - Anthony Quinn, The
Independent. "A viscerally effective portrayal of man against
nature& Brilliantly shot, utterly convincing footage of young
men inching up a vertical rock face proves nerve-racking and a
worthy tribute to the true-life bravery of 1930s climbers. It's
gripping and fascinating in equal measure." - Trevor Johnson,
Film4.com
In German with English subtitles
