Nordwand

Nordwand

 

This is also a movie I watched in the Sneak Preview´, it´s very good made, it´s a true story and it´s a german one. The Eiger Nordwand is a difficult and dangerous wall to climb and it lays in the Alps in Austria. To make this clear, this ascent has nothing really to do with climbing anymore, because the weather on the Eiger is very insecure, it changes from day to day and even faster. It takes about two days to reach the top when the weather is good and stabil, this weather thing makes it so dangerous to go on this wall because it doesn´t matter that you are a good climber when you have to fight with extreme coldness, lawines and rockfalls. To the story: It´s 1936. Toni (Benno Fuermann) and Andreas (Florian Lukas) are friends since they can think, they live in the same village and during their free time they go on climbing tours. An old friend of them, Luise Fellner (Johanna Wokalek), visits them, because she wants to write an article about the first ascent of the Eiger Nordwand. She wants to convince the boys to go to the cpmpetition that´s taking place soon, and they could win Olympic Gold for Germany with this. Before nobody was able to reach the top, many tries ended deadly, the second name of the Nordwand is Mordwand (murderwall). Anyway, they go there, everybody is exited, there are other teams from different countries, in the end only two teams start the climb :Toni and Andreas and the other team Willy and Edi. Not long after Willy gets hit by a stone but despertly wants to go on. The weather changes after one day, the four guys are stuck together, lawines, rockfall, snow, storm and freezing temperatures. Willy falls and is injured with an open fracture. They decide to turn and get back. But this is not as easy as it sounds like. They all die. What I liked especially was that the movie was so close to the characters, you get to know them, you feel with them, and the two extrems are very clear: lively and full of impulsive delight in a realistic way in the beginning, and the struggle they have in the end, the fear, hope and hoplessness, death. The pictures are beautiful, the Nordwand seems to be son inviting when they start but changes to hostile place from one moment to another. It´s a sad film and not easy to watch, but very good.