Manaslu - Where Souls Once Gathered

Manaslu - Where Souls Once Gathered

Bavaria Media International
100 min

Kammerlander was born and raised in the Alps. His soul connected to mountainous heights and touched clouds from a young age. His Everest ascent remains the fastest and the mountain’s descent on skis, the first. But the climber’s shot at the first climber to summit all eight-thousanders without oxygen was dwarfed by the deaths of his two dear friends attempting Manaslu in 1991. It shook his core. The film recounts Kammerlander’s painful journeys and 2017 return to conquer Manaslu, its ghosts and to answer the question all survivors ask.

Hans Kammerlander embodies extreme climbing. The biopic chronicles his epic sacrifices, successes and losses. What distinguishes intrepid explorers and adventurers from the rest of us? What drives them to climb through killer conditions to reach the top? There are those who tend toward epic optimism – a mild delusion of grandeur. But without this psychological basis, so many achievements, discoveries and adventures would never be possible; many setbacks would never be overcome. -director Gerald Salmina.