14 x 8000 : Aux sommets de l'impossible

An absolutely incredible performance and one that for me is unimaginable, inhuman. Unfortunately, however, his filmmaking is mediocre at best. I think it would have been worth going a bit more below the surface, giving more space to the buildup and individual performances. Personally, I would have cut down on the talk about family (I can't believe I'm the one saying this) and the constant repetition of how hard it is for Nepalis in the world. This would command respect even without that. While I believe the sentiments are genuine, it did feel a bit forced. (05/07/2022)

It should have been a docuseries, no doubt about that. It unsportingly undermines itself, it’s too frantic in a "we don't have time to stop at anything/anyone and actually mention anything properly" way – it bites everything, but chews nothing. A few seconds are devoted to the difficulty of financing a dream project, only to end abruptly with "mortgaging your house", which is completely out of context and financially not enough for almost anything. And so it is with everything else. It wants, among other things, to highlight the issue of Western expeditions that neglect the role of Nepalese climbers and Sherpas, but it itself does not have the time to give adequate space to Purja's team. As I said, the docuseries format would have suited it a lot better, because you could not ask for a more apt material. This rushed approach leaves no space to address the “shady sides”. And there would have been plenty, as Purja more than once, because of his blind preoccupation, bets everything on pure chance and risks his life and the lives of others unnecessarily. Of course, what looms over it is how powerful and telling it is. To climb all the eight-thousand-metre peaks one after the other as if on a treadmill, and at the same time, just by the way, to set a world record, to take a picture of a moment that the whole world will know, and to open and draw attention to a burning topic? Respect. (01/12/2021)