You wouldn’t know it from the opening scenes– shots of watercolors, folk dancers, beaded costumes, and incense — but this is a movie about skiing.
Named for our perception of time, Chronoception follows a group of Francophone skiers, snowboarders, and mountaineers on a 22-day journey through the remote Kokshaal-Too mountains of Kyrgyzstan.
Thomas Delfino, Lea Klaue, and Aurelien Lardy, supported by guides Jean-Yves Fredriksen & Helias Millerioux, have come to Kyrgyzstan to ski and snowboard in the under-explored Kokshaal-Too range. But just reaching these snowy peaks on the border with China is an undertaking.
Damaged roads, muddy tracks, and thick, swampy ground repeatedly stymie the hired truck. Finally, they’re forced to give up on the truck entirely and hire horses to carry them and their baggage the rest of the way to base camp.
The truck is stuck, again. Photo: Screenshot
On foot
Eventually, they reach a point even the horses aren’t going past. Loading up heavy packs, they begin to slowly portage up into the mountains. High camp is over 3,900m. Finally, the long and laborious preparation ends, and they take out their snowboards. It is these moments, Lardy explains, that he remembers. The weeks of travel, hiking, and portaging are the same size in his mind as the first moments on the slope.
Snowboarding in the Kokshaal-Too range. Photo: Screenshot
The landscapes are striking, the slopes untouched, but their moments of victory are hard won. As they climb (a more apt word might be trudge) toward the 5,509m peak of Pyramida, team members admit that the long and physically demanding approaches take their toll. While they stand in wonder at the views from the top, Millerioux realizes with chagrin that he’s lost his phone. This, for him at least, marks a low point. He radios down to announce his loss.
“There’s no cell reception, so no big deal.”
“Shut the fuck up,” he responds, though the French-to-English captions pretend he said nothing.
A coming storm
This tragedy aside, the lost phone hasn’t impacted their skiing or the many dramatic first-person footage. Then, on the 5,056m summit of Night Butterfly, an oncoming storm turns the summit approach into a dangerous race.
Night Butterfly, as a dark storm rolls in behind it. Photo: Screenshot
Their gamble pays off, and they summit successfully, descending on skis with whoops and cheers. At the bottom, they embrace each other. This was the last day of their expedition, and on that note, the film draws to a close.
The film is, on the surface, about a ski and snowboarding expedition. But it’s interested in broader themes. A narrator breaks up the narrative to deliver her thoughts on time, patience, and perception. The B-roll is not the drone shots of the mountains that one expects. Instead, it explores the people and culture of Kyrgyzstan.
A Kyrgyz man plays the mouth harp, an ancient and delightful folk instrument which is popular in Central Asia. Photo: Screenshot
This is a winter sports adventure film, but one with intent. If you like your snowboarding films contemplative, your editing slick, fast, and modern, and your soundtrack dominated by the mouth harp, Chronoception is for you.
