Echo Mountain Film Festival is a mountain film festival organised in Macedonia. This year, the Main Award of the festival went to the documentary film "Jurek" by Paweł Wysoczański. The jury appreciated the film for telling the story of Jerzy Kukuczka against the background of socio-political events in Poland, as well as for showing the attempts at commercialising mounting climbing in 1980s.
"Jurek" tells the story of Jerzy Kukuczka, who died on 24 October 1989 during the Lhotse expedition. It was the first time when he 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.
Today, on October 24, is the 27th anniversary of the death of Jerzy Kukuczka. Therefore, yet another award won by the film "Jurek" by Paweł Wysoczański is a wonderful tribute to one of the most important Polish mountain climbers.
The full list of the winners is available here.