Kevin MacDonald
La Morte Sospesa

Touching the Void, an English docu-film from 2003 (which plays in the title between the obsessive anticipation of impending death and the fact that survival is literally hanging by a thread) is one of those gems that almost went unnoticed in Italian cinemas, increasingly focused on guaranteed profits rather than promoting "minor" films like this.
A film without major special effects, without complex narrative structures, and without shootings, daring escapes, or fistfights. A film, believe it or not, WITHOUT even a hint of a voluptuous woman with exposed breasts, or even a kiss or a love story.
In fact, I’ll say more: not even a soundtrack or a leitmotif to hum, let alone deep dialogues or intellectual musings!
None of this.
Here we are at the Absolute Zero of conventional cinematography but, precisely for this reason, vibrant with intense emotions like few others!
In short: I would venture to call it a Zen Film.
One that seeps into you gradually and builds up inside like a soufflé, slowly but inevitably taking hold of you and never letting go. A film that, in the simplest and most direct way, tells the story of a strong and sincere Friendship and the relationship between two human beings, intense, alive, and poised on a "thin white line" which is that of the environment of extreme mountaineering among the perpetual snow of high-altitude glaciers.
A film made of voids and long inexplicable silences, where a look, a light, the sound of a drop of water dripping from a stalactite, or the sound of a breaking rope, become the silent dialogues of an almost cathartic experience that literally takes your breath away. We are close to something mystical, an ecstatic experience rarely portrayed in films commonly distributed in cinemas.
A film that makes you feel the snowstorm directly on your skin, shakes your soul, and digs inside you, telling in almost symbolic fashion the fall, the defeat, and the inner victory of a man who, with his courage, determination, and desire to succeed, will be rewarded precisely (and only) for this.
Almost a parallel and mystical journey with the Passion of Christ (here made man) with its calvary, defeat, and final redemption.

It is the TRUE story (and reconstructed almost flawlessly) of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, two young and experienced English mountaineers, who in 1985 decided to climb Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes, a titanic feat never before completed by anyone. While the climb will prove to be quite easy, the descent will become their true nightmare.
A Dantean hell of equal intensity that will lead one of the two protagonists (due to an incident along the way) into the dark recesses of the soul, in close contact with the fear of death, where living or dying will no longer be a purely organic matter but will represent a challenge with oneself beyond all human comprehension.

Great mastery and class by Kevin MacDonald, the director, able to "make the hostile and claustrophobic environment speak", considered by many to be the third True Protagonist of the film, with breathtaking sequences shot in extreme and truly unthinkable situations.
A film that slowly but surely, is garnering great recognition worldwide (best British film at the BAFTA, winner of the Trento Festival, and other awards still to be assigned) and is now being distributed by Fandango Film at newsstands.

Ladies and gentlemen: a lesson in Great Great Cinema.