“W” (Canada)

Bulgarian premiere of the film  “W”, Canada, 2016, Steven Schwabl, 29’

A man moves from the mountains to the city, into an apartment across from a huge, red W spinning atop a replica of the Eiffel Tower. The man becomes obsessed with the W and wonders what it is and why it is there, and that leads him to turn the questions on himself. “Who am I? Why do I exist?” And then he realizes it. All these questions begin with W. He is staring at the Big W Questions themselves. Since he comes from the mountains his people are climbers, and the greatest of all climbers is the legendary Reinhold Messner. “What would Reinhold do in my situation?” the man asks. “He would climb it,” he answers. “And he would climb it alone.” So the man sets out to climb to the W and uses Messner’s 1980 Everest solo as his guide.

Meeting with the director Steven Schwabl.

Key persons: Reinhold Messner – climbing footage from Austria, audio from his first Everest ascent, footage from Banff, Canada, Steven Schwabl, Vancouver, Canada.