Meru

Un film d'escalade, non seulement sur la première ascension d'une montagne himalayenne extrêmement difficile, mais surtout sur le rêve commun à trois grimpeurs de retour en pèlerinage après une première tentative écrasante et peu de chances de réussite en raison de l'état de santé détérioré de l'un d'entre eux. En même temps, le film parle de la perte de ses proches et de la détermination à réaliser un rêve d'équipe, même si « survivre à sa propre mort » vous dit clairement « arrête ça ! ». Tourné même dans les endroits les plus fous avec une qualité d'image magnifique, grâce à Jimmy Chin. (18/09/2022)

A two-round duel with probably the most complex and difficult climbing challenge ever (Holeček and Kreisinger could tell); one of the peaks of Mount Meru Shark’s fin. This documentary is not so impressive because it shows the first successful ascent, but rather because it portrays both attempts of climbers in a way that you have a feeling you are standing right next to them. But even so, it is not the most impressive sequence. The most impressive one is the second third of the documentary, which covers approximately three years between the attempts and which describes the life of the central trio. And a lot happened during these three years, that is for sure. If it had been a fiction, no one would believe screenwriters, because you would think something like that simply cannot happen. What ultimately prevents Meru from being an unforgettable experience is, surprisingly, the final history of mountaineering that rewrites the ascent, which also offers one extremely interesting and controversial dilemma. It's hard to say if they had little material about this ascent or if it seemed similar to the first attempt, but it's portrayed way too quickly much and coldly that it's detrimental to it. (08/11/2015)

Well yeah, it's a documentary that tells a quite powerful story and interestingly shows where the possibilities of a person lie and what their body can endure. Those testimonies are very intense and are delivered in a way that allows you to really empathize with different events. But still, I can't help it, it just didn't manage to impact me that much. (06/11/2015)