“It was a very strong fascination of mine,” explains Werner Herzog in reference to his childhood dream of becoming a ski jump champion. During the winter he used to build jumps together with the other boys in Chiemgau and was passionate about skiing. It was only when a friend badly injured himself that his desire to soar through the skies like a bird was quashed. Then in 1973 he filmed this portrait of the Swiss world ski jump champion and wood carver, Walter Steiner. It is a film about the thrill of taking off and the fear of landing, in which Herzog himself appears as a sports reporter. “I had fantasies about it and really wanted to be able to fly, without machinery,” Herzog says of his childhood wish. Moritz Holfelder 

The cutter Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus will be our guest.

“How was it when you had to face your mother and deliver the news of your brother’s death?” Stunned, Reinhold Messner breaks down under the weight of Werner Herzog’s question. Days later he sets off on an adventure with his buddy, Hans Kammerlander, the likes of which has never been seen before in mountaineering: the first double ascent of two eight-thousanders using Alpine style climbing.
In this drama Werner Herzog and his protagonist do not cut each other any slack. One is obsessed with making a new contribution to the history of climbing, the other relentless in fathoming the psyche of the one obsessed. Two brothers in spirit who don’t pass each other by. Daniel Sponsel