Peak - Above all peaks
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Peak - Above all peaks |
 | |
| Country of production |
Germany , Italy |
| original language |
German , Italian |
| Publishing year | 2011 |
| length | 91 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Hannes Lang |
| script |
Hannes Lang , Mareike Wegener |
| production |
Titus Kreyenberg unafilm , Mario Mazzarotto |
| music | Benedict slate |
| camera | Thilo Schmidt, Hajo Schomerus |
| cut | Stefan Stabenow |
Peak - Above all summits (Italian title Peak - un mondo al limite ) is a German - Italian documentary film that over a period of one year looks at the construction and production processes related to winter tourism in the Alps and contrasts them with the way of life in almost deserted Italian mountain villages .
action
Without any off-commentary , the film shows scenes from the "management" of the mountains for winter sports and the associated mechanization. The tarnishing of the glaciers is just as much a topic as night-time slope preparation , extensive snow - making in Sölden and snowmaking even on the Pitztal glacier . The people observed describe and reflect on their own activities. The largest artificial reservoir in Tyrol on the Tiefenbachferner is documented in its various construction phases as well as winter tourists in different situations. One of the few residents of Tignes who also lives in summer leads through the deserted place, a contrast is the crowd at a mountain arrival of the Giro d'Italia . These impressions from tourist strongholds alternate with observations from the Piedmontese mountain village of Rimella , in which only a few old people live who live mainly on their own agriculture, live without electricity or telephone and whose observations form the opposite pole to the recordings from the tourist centers.
Awards
Peak had its premiere in 2011 at the DOK Leipzig festival , where it received the 1st prize from the Goethe Institute for the best documentary film. The jury justified its decision:
“The film is characterized by an overwhelming visual language that finds appropriate aesthetic expression in the format of the cinemascope. As an example, the universal theme of the destruction of nature by humans is impressively conveyed to the viewer. The film is able to show this without evaluating commentary solely through the images of industrial interventions in a centuries-old cultural landscape. The systematic destruction of the nature of the Alpine region and the loss of home radically breaks through the genre expectation of traditional Heimatfilm. "
With this award, the Goethe-Institut also acquired the licenses to show the film worldwide and finances the subtitling in up to ten languages .
Reviews
“A disturbing portrait of nature and society. Peak - Above all peaks shows the indelible traces of our technology. [...] And asks questions: How artificial can a landscape be? How artificial does it have to be so that it does justice to our idea of the Alpine idyll? How do we deal with our nature and with its resources? "
“ Peak is a film about the industrialization of the Alps and the drying up of their most important resource. […] Hannes Lang, who was born in Brixen in South Tyrol in 1981 and grew up in the mountains, does not show anyone. He shows something. "
“As much as Peak impresses as a document of the destructive logic of consumption, its qualities are not exhausted in 'engagement', not least because Lang has formalistic passions that belong to cinema itself. In his pictures of alpine madness we recognize ourselves, caught in activity and without hope for context, incapable of that overview that Lang constructs again and again in carefully constructed tableaus. For me one of the best debuts in the last ten years. "
“[…] The pictures are visually impressive, the cutting sequences and the analogies they bring with them give Peak additional qualities, but what makes it peculiar is its universality. Away from this glacier in Piedmont, away from the Alps. It starts where everything depends on nature, on its whims and changes. [...] From this utopia of nature, to the longing for it, to the care of a dying glacier and the tourists, for whom the artificial snow is a natural experience, to the cities, to this text, countless layers overlap of artificiality. Peak refers to it. "
“With the documentation, Lang and his team have succeeded in taking recordings of existing buildings that are not limited to trying to illustrate hypotheses and are subordinate to didactic or educational purposes. The associative montage, ambiguous imagery and the lack of a commentary that defines and interprets the picture arrangements, not only bring Peak close to the essay film, but also far away from the majority of documentary film productions or the lessons of Erwin Wagenhofer . "
“ Peak , mind you, is not an outrage film: it offers no docking surface for the affect interests of an angry bourgeoisie. The primeval is not essentialized and positioned in relation to the maneuvers of a perplexed industry. Observed for a long time - and literally maintains a distance: panorama and long shots enjoy a privileged position among the setting sizes. The infamous "Talking Heads", who otherwise casually contribute expertise and anecdotes in the documentary, turn people into the landscape - lost, clumsy, at a loss. Not because Lang would like to denounce it - but because it is the right picture for the situation [...]. Film aesthetics become an instrument of knowledge. Peak is superficially about the mountains and the last things of sloping cultures. A crisis film that, five years after the financial meltdown, basically - very contemporary, very visually - speaks of much more. "
"Visually impressive documentary film that, with its spectacular shots, lets both perspectives stand side by side without comment."
DVD release and broadcast
Peak was released on DVD on October 18, 2013 . The film had its television premiere on the night of February 2, 2015 in the ZDF series “ Das kleine Fernsehspiel ” under the title “Over all peaks”.
Web links
- Peak - Above all summits in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Peak - Above all peaks at filmportal.de (with photo gallery and trailer)
- Official website for the film ( Memento from January 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- Peak on the unafilm website
- Peak - Above all peaks at farbfilm-verleih.de
- BR radioWelt interview with Hannes Lang about the film
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Peak - Above all peaks . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2013 (PDF; test number: 136 983 K).
- ↑ Giant snow-making lake in the high mountains , ORF Tirol from September 15, 2010, accessed on May 27, 2013. tirisMaps - Tiefenbachferner with storage pond in the Tyrolean aerial photo atlas .
- ↑ Peak - Above all peaks on cinefacts.de, accessed on February 3, 2015.
- ↑ Documentary film award for “Peak”: Der Berg is crying , message on the Goethe-Institut website from October 24, 2011, accessed on July 8, 2013
- ^ Film review Peak - Above all summits ( memento from April 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on www.br.de from March 26, 2013, accessed on July 9, 2013.
- ↑ Dealer of the Four Seasons on www.freitag.de from March 27, 2013, accessed on July 9, 2013.
- ↑ Alpiner Wahn , revolver-film.blogspot.de of October 18, 2011, accessed on July 9, 2013.
- ↑ Peak - Berg, Geld, Mensch on www.negativ-film.de from March 25, 2013, accessed on July 9, 2013.
- ↑ Film review on Critic.de.
- ↑ Bearded men in the fortress - Die Filmkolumne , perlentaucher.de of March 27, 2013, accessed on February 3, 2015.
- ↑ Peak - Above all peaks. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Peak - Above all peaks (DVD) on cinefacts.de, accessed on February 3, 2015.
- ↑ Above all summits on zdf.de, accessed on February 3, 2015.