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Lifelines The Story of 2 Friends

Lifelines The Story of 2 Friends

reżyseria: Frank Kretschmann
Niemcy 2020, 23 min.
Trailer

Lifelines Historia dwóch przyjaciół – Rogera Schälia i Stefana Siegrista – te nazwiska są powszechnie znane w Szwajcarii, nawet poza kręgami alpinistów. Są synonimem topowego alpinizmu, wspinali się w Alpach, Patagonii i w Himalajach. W pewnym momencie ich drogi się rozeszły i odnowili przyjaźń dopiero po latach podczas wspinaczki na Jungfrau (4158 m): pierwsze wejście na „Rotes Brett”. („Silberrücken”, Westwand Rotbrätt / Jungfrau / 8a+ / 350 metrów). Ta droga to coś więcej niż zniechęcająca linia na jednej z najbardziej eksponowanych ścian Alp i nowy rozdział we wspólnej historii i przyjaźni tego zespołu.

Lifelines The Story of 2 Friends – S Roger Schäli, Stefan Siegrist – these names are widely known in Schwitzerland, even outside of alpinist circles. They stand as synonyms for state-of-the-art alpinism of the modern build: fast, hard, uncompromising. The numerous ascents they have amassed independently and together, in walls from the Alps to Patagonia all the way to the Himalaya, are only the most cursory attribute that they have in common. What is often neglected, what isn’t put into focus most of the time, is the fact that it’s people made from flesh and blood that stand behind these alpine top-performances. In the case of the aforementioned athletes it’s a shared past that goes way back which connects them closer to each other than you could possibly imagine, despite the different paths they have chosen during the course of their lives. There were the ‘wild years’ while they were roommates in the shared apartment in Interlaken. The first big ascents on walls around their hometown that the public barely recognized. After the apprentice years came their coming of age: the routes got harder, their goals shifted across the countries borders and the continent. Patagonia and Pakistan became their new stage. Everything became bigger, everything more professional, everything faster. The public started to show interest in them. Siegrist, Schäli – soon everyone knew these names. Their development as alpinists continued, but their emotional bonds from back in the day began to crumble. Many things remained unspoken and fell by the wayside. The ‘brothers’ from past days were becoming strangers. Life teaches us that many things that are unspoken stay that way. Now Roger and Stefan have come closer again after all the years. What they must have realized right away was that many things weren’t the way they used to be. One of the two, Roger, spends his time drifting between El Chalten and Kalymnos while enjoying life as an endless road trip. The other one, Stefan, lives a steady life with a house and family as a confederate icon of alpinism. But what used to connect them – climbing, the mountains, alpinism, still does so today. They came together as a team with a common goal again on Jungfrau (4158m): a first ascent on the ‘Rotes Brett’. (‚Silberrücken‘, Westwand Rotbrätt / Jungfrau / 8a+ / 350 Meter) This route is more than just a daunting line on one of the most exposed walls of the Alps. It’s a new chapter in the shared story of two people. It’s a story about the convergence, crossing, splicing of two lifelines that went their different ways for a long time. In the end this process which can’t take place without friction, without getting tangled up, culminates high up not far from their collective wall in the Silberhornhütte, which thrones atop the sharp edge of the ridge, almost symbolically. The movie ‘Lifelines’ doesn’t just want to document a daunting first ascent. It wants to take a look at what goes on behind the scenes and tell the mutual story of two exceptional climbers starting in the past all the way to the present in the process. If there is a conclusion this movie would like to reach it is this: time does not magically and by itself heal all wounds. Only a common goal can.