Mountains have given us many stories: from the fictional like Heidi, Peer Gynt, and Tolkien’s Mines of Moria to the very real adventures of Edmund Hillary, David Lama, Junko Tabei, and Lobsang Tshering. Some of these mountaineers lost their lives in the pursuit of their goals and just reading about their deaths gave me goosebumps.
Death is something Brave encounters too. A documentary short by Martin Sandin and Viktor Annerstål, Brave follows the trials and triumphs of Maria Granberg’s ascent of the 8163-metre Manaslu in Nepal. The eighth-highest mountain in the world, Granberg’s goal was to climb this lofty peak without supplemental oxygen. She braved the mountain in 2021 but did not pull it off quite how she had intended. Not one to be deterred, she tried again in 2022, a journey for which she was better prepared but that came with its own challenges and hardship.
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You can’t watch a movie about mountains and not expect it to be breathtaking. Brave is no exception, with its sweeping panoramas and giddy heights. The harsh glare of the snow, the stark lines of the mountains, the crisp sounds of boots crunching into the snow, and the repeated gasps for breath lend a directness to the storytelling. However, when the film moves to Granberg’s native Sweden, the film is all soft focus and hazy light, emphasising the comfort and safety of home.
This is where Granberg’s dreams were born and contrasting her mission with home helps frame the narrative and avoids the talking head technique. The latter is almost inevitable in documentaries – but it can get tiresome, and I appreciated the film finding different ways of telling its story.
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Granberg’s selfie videos add an extra layer to the story and are a different way of using the “talking head”. These provide greater insight into Granberg’s frame of mind, although I was disconcertingly reminded of The Blair Witch Project. But they’re also effective for that reason. It is disconcerting when the horror of reality knocks the romanticism of dreams, and this is a dissonant truth Granberg must face as she musters the bravery to surmount the physical and mental challenges that can come with facing your fears.
Feature image: Brave: How the mountains saved my life