Messner

Reinhold Messner is not always an uncontroversial figure, a passionate extreme mountaineer who has often been the subject of books, films, articles or public discussions. So one might actually think that there is hardly anything new to tell about him. Director Andreas Nickel wants to prove with Messner, a mixture of documentary and game scenes, that the life story of Reinhold Messner still has many exciting aspects that are little or not at all known.

Even such aspects, the film skillfully mixes with known stations from the life of the climber, such as the tragic death of Messner's brother Günther, who not only in Messner's real life, but also in this film, of course, takes a central role. Numerous archive shots, wonderful mountain panoramas and a handful of spectacular mountaineering sequences make the film worth seeing even for those viewers who have already seen or read a lot about Reinhold Messner.

Presenting snapshots from Messner's childhood, adolescence and young adult years in the form of feature scenes is very good in itself, especially since two real professional mountaineers, Florian and Martin Riegler, could be won for the roles of Reinhold and Günther Messner. However, the scenes are characterized by a somewhat wooden acting of the actors, which robs the whole thing a little effectiveness, which is actually inherent in the production of Andreas Nickel.

What concerns the interviews with Messner himself, his brothers and other climbers, so they are characterized by the fact that they all seem quite honest and fortunately not always uncritical. Thus, the film does not come across as a glorifying hymn to Reinhold Messner, but rather as a multifaceted and profound portrait of a very interesting person with a high show value, despite all the controversies. There have been more spectacular and exciting documentaries about mountaineering, but if you are interested in the life of Reinhold Messner and his passion, you will definitely get your money's worth here. Worth seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp