Kritiken

Jennifer Peedom's Sherpa starts off resembling another slick, beautifully shot, and entertaining mountain-climbing documentary — this time from the point of view of the oft-neglected Nepalese ethnic group who for decades have done the heavy lifting as various Westerners summited Mount Everest... But when an accident on Everest kills sixteen people, most of them Sherpas, the film effectively becomes about a labor-rights dispute.

While cinematographer Renan Ozturk captures dazzling footage of the mountain, Peedom displays a superb eye for revealing human moments... The resulting film is a quiet, complex account of the gradual fracturing of an outdated set of arrangements and attitudes, the setting for which commands a particular kind of respect.

Thanks to the persisting ignorance of Western media, Norgay's legacy survives almost exclusively through Himalayan folklore. This fascinating documentary from Australian director Jennifer Peedom sets the record straight by acknowledging Norgay's achievements, unpacking various myths surrounding the Sherpa people before attempting to understand their changing role in what is now a major tourism industry.

The only factual effort competing for the Sydney Film Festival's prestigious $60,000 prize, this stunning documentary initially sticks to familiar beats of endurance and adversity. When nature unexpectedly intervenes, however, Sherpa swiftly proves as grippingly human and political as it does visually spectacular.