The Epic of Everest

Watching the film is a quietly mesmerizing experience, along the lines of the Popol Vuh soundscapes in Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

It's the chill grandeur of his images, and the mystical note in his rueful conclusion, that will linger in your mind.

Crazed human endeavour existed in 1924, and here's the amazing document of an early attempt to reach the top of the world.

Even after nearly 100 years this is both awe-inspiring and mournful. The tension running through the film is as much between the scientific and the spiritual as between man and nature.