MOUNTAIN

Sherpa director Jennifer Peedom returns to the mountains that so captivate her to explore that very captivation, hers and humanity's, in a unique cinematic and musical collaboration with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

The seemingly very human desire to seek out the top of the world, often at considerable cost to limb or even life, is only a few hundred years old. But from the moment the mountains cast their spell on us, we never looked back – or down, as the case may be.

With the multi-sensory Mountain, the director of MIFF 2015 hit Sherpa investigates this phenomenon. Collaborating with Renan Ozturk and other leading high-altitude cinematographers, bestselling author Robert Macfarlane (Mountains of the Mind) and the Australian Chamber Orchestra's artistic director Richard Tognetti, Peedom has framed a breathtaking visual opus. Tognetti composed a bespoke soundscape for the images featuring works by Beethoven, Chopin, Vivaldi, Grieg and Corelli, alongside new compositions of his own; Macfarlane wrote a sparse, poetic narration for Willem Dafoe.

Together, they have created an unforgettable cine-sonic journey through awe-inspiring vistas seldom visited but often dreamed about.

Director Jennifer Peedom will be at both sessions to introduce the film and take part in a post-screening Q&A.