Broad Peak, directed by Leszek Dawid and based on a true story, is the world’s first feature film shot above 5,600m. The biopic focuses on Maciej Berbeka, a legendary Polish mountaineer who, together with climbing partner Tomasz Kowalski, disappeared during the first winter ascent of Broad Peak (8,047m) in 2013.
Unlike many other mountaineering films dramatizing real-life events, Dawid eschewed the use both of studio sets and convenient home mountain ranges, such as the Polish Tatra. Instead, he and his crew spent over a month in northern Pakistan. Photo: Leszek Dawid
Maciej Rzączyński, one of the film’s producers, said that their aim is to cater to a broad audience while still making it “substantively good enough that mountain specialists do not laugh at us.” Photo: Leszek Dawid
The film crew returns to Base Camp on the Godwin-Austen Glacier. K2’s South Face looms behind. Besides Pakistan, the team also shot scenes in Warsaw, Zakopane and the French Alps. The US$3.6 million film will be released in 2020. Photo: Leszek Dawid
