The Autrans festival is one of the most important events in France, promoting documentary, short and animated mountain films. At this year's edition, the film "Jurek" by Paweł Wysoczański won the Mountain Guides Prize.
"Jurek" tells the story of Jerzy Kukuczka, who died on 24 October 1989 during the Lhotse expedition. It was the first time when we went to the Himalayas with money, equipment, and as a really famous person. The documentary by Paweł Wysoczański does not, however, concentrate on the mystery of the Himalayan mountaineer's death. It shows a person who climbs up, higher and higher – literally, but also metaphorically and symbolically. From a bootblack to a millionaire, from a socialist worker to an international media star, from the man who climbs without any money and equipment to the real competitor of Reinhold Messner in the competition to climb the Crown of the Himalayas and the Karakoram. Interviews with family and friends, archive materials, photographs, recordings, excerpts from television programmes and interviews make up the portrait of the Himalayan mountaineers in 1980s. It is also the image of the times in which they lived – hard and colourful at the same time, when idealism was more valued than fame.
The full list of award-winning films in on the Festival's website.