Inspired by the exploits of blind mountain climber, Eric Weihenmayer, six students from the Tibetan School for the Blind undertake an expedition to the Lhakpa-Ri summit of Mt. Everest. One of the most engaging documentaries of recent years, this film is beautiful and awe-inspiring. Filmed against the backdrop of the world' tallest mountain, you will find the prerequisite thrills of a mountain climbing saga, but this wise little film is really about something more awe-inspiring... the human spirit.
Since reading "Into Thin Air," we've watched a lot of films about Everest and read the books too, but here's something different. An expedition organized to get six blind Tibetan teenagers to the Lhakpa-Ri peak of the mountain, becomes the backstory to some even greater challenges for these brave youngsters. One by one, their life stories are revealed to be as inspirational as anything they encounter on the windswept glaciers of the world's tallest mountain. In a country where blindness is considered a curse, we find these young men and women to be closer to greatness in their courage and humility, than any fainter glory that reaching a mountain summit could bring them.
Interesting interplay among the adult sponsors of the trip, rugged mountain guides who see things in the western spirit of individual achievement, and the teachers from the school, one of them blind herself, who simply want their young friends to experience the joy and comradeship of which they have had so little in their lives. Time and again, while watching, we were overwhelmed by emotion, but this is not a film of cheap sentimentality. It's about the darkness that surrounds anyone who feels cut off and outcast, and the light that suddenly penetrates to the heart of those who experience something resembling family and acceptance for the first time in their lives.
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