“G4 – A Ridge between Past and War”

Alpine Documentation (), Fulvio Mariani, Mario Casella (Schweiz/Switzerland) 69 min

G4 stays for Gasherbrum 4: a peak almost 8,000 m in the Karakoram Himalayas. Kurt Diemberger, a very popular European climber and writer, called it “one of the most difficult mountains on earth”. The documentary follows a group of seven Swiss-italian climbers during their attempt to repeat the North-east Ridge of G4. This ridge was the same, followed by the first climbers to reach the summit in 1958: Walter Bonatti and Carlo Mauri. The 2002 expedition arrived in Pakistan, the very same days as a nuclear war seemed to be close with India. The documentary shows the effects of this dramatic political tension in the remote Karakoram area and compares the present experience with the adventure of the Italian expedition of 44 years before. This comparison is possible thanks to the exceptional film of Fosco Maraini, who filmed the 1958 Italian success, and through the narration of members of that expedition still alive.