In Poland, mountain climbing is very popular, and every achievement or tragedy experienced by Polish climbers is followed closely by the public. The story of Maciej Berbeka and his demise was one of the most talked-about expeditions, so it was only a matter of time before his biopic would be made. Released by Netflix, Broad Peak [+leggi anche:
intervista: Leszek Dawid
scheda film] climbed into the global top ten of non-English films in its first few weeks. Here’s what director Leszek Dawid has to say about telling a story that everyone knows, but in a way no one expected.

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Cineuropa: Making Broad Peak was a risky business, as you were shooting on location in the Karakoram mountains, where it’s difficult to breathe for some, not to mention work on a movie.
Leszek Dawid: We shot the film there, in the Karakoram, as well as on K2 and in the Broad Peak region, both on the glacier beneath Broad Peak and on the mountain itself. The crew was working with a camera and other equipment above the base camp, while the climbers were as high as Camp 3. They were shooting material that we later used in post-production. Szymon Kapeniak prepared the equipment that made it possible to take different shots – panoramic and others – at different times of day. We needed shots of the mountains after dark so that we could show that Berbeka was on the peak just before night fell. And it was clear to us that we couldn’t have any of the crew there after dark, because it was simply too dangerous.

We also had drone shots done by Bartek Bargiel, who was in the Karakoram for a different undertaking – his brother Andrzej was planning to climb K2 and then ski down from the top. For some reason, our drone operator didn’t get a visa, so we asked Bartek to use our drones and shoot some Broad Peak material. We also spent two months on two separate trips to the Alps, mainly to the Mont Blanc area, to shoot additional footage. Yes, the Alps “stand in” for the Karakoram.

What also seemed risky was telling a story based on facts that sparked a media frenzy in Poland in 2013. Almost everyone had an opinion on what happened at Broad Peak and why Maciej Berbeka never returned.
We went contrary to expectations, since we knew that everyone would assume that a film about Broad Peak would focus only on the 2013 expedition and would point out who was to blame for the drama that unfolded there. Also, we felt that we didn’t have the right to judge the situation, and the deeper we dug, talking to climbers, the clearer it became to us that the issue was complicated and that everyone had a different perspective. We picked another route: we connected two Broad Peak expeditions – the one in 1988 and the one in 2013 – that Berbeka took part in. The fact that he didn’t reach the top the first time left him hungry for more. Most of all, it was also a matter of losing his honour and feeling cheated. In our film, there is a scene where Krzysztof Wielicki invites Berbeka on a second expedition to Broad Peak, and Berbeka is happy that he will get closure, even though he hides it. He deserved to climb that mountain.

Bearing in mind your previous drama about a young woman, My Name Is Ki [+leggi anche:
trailer
intervista: Leszek Dawid
scheda film], and your biopic of a hip-hop band, You Are God [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film], it comes as a surprise that you have directed a film about a famous mountain climber.
Actually, it doesn’t. It’s sort of a return for me to something I did decades ago – a documentary film about the climber Marcin Tomaszewski. Because of that film, I got kicked out of film school and then got admitted back in. It was a tough experience for me: it had nothing to do with the story itself, but rather with my persistence in pursuing it. When producer Maciej Rzączyński asked if I would be interested in directing a film about the events on Broad Peak a few years ago, I thought that maybe 20 years later, I would understand more about why people climb mountains.

It seems like mountaineering and making a film are similar in the sense that they require dedication and absolute focus.
I would agree. There is a similar scale of commitment, in terms of leaving some things behind and the price one has to pay for all of this. I keep thinking about how a person can really be fulfilled in our profession, and not have unresolved issues with their family or relationships. I naively think it can all be done. But then I watched The Salt of the Earth [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film], about genius photographer Sebastião Salgado, co-directed by his son. It seemed to me that he made a film about his father because he never really got to know him.