The Wall of Shadows

Dir. Eliza Kubarska. Poland, Germany, Switzerland. 2020, 98 mins. In Tibetan, Nepali, Russian and Polish with English subtitles. Will your gods forgive the sins you committed out of love for your child? In Nepal, Ngada Sherpa and his wife, Jomdoe, break a taboo when they climb Kumbhakarna—one of the holiest of mountains—to earn money for their son to go to school and thus save him from dangerous and degrading work as a “porter” who guides climbers. Filmmaker Eliza Kubarska joins them and a group of leading alpinists from the Western world on an expedition up the east face of the 7,710-meter mountain, one of the most difficult climbing challenges in the world. New York premiere.

Streaming online.