The Place Where I Am follows passionate trad climber Masa Sakano. Originally from Japan, Masa’s decision to live in Scotland was driven by a love of Scottish winter climbing and the wild spaces of the Highlands. Through Masa’s story, the film explores the Scottish winter climbing scene, and what it is to belong in a given place.
Masa climbing in Scotland. Photo: Screenshot
We meet Masa as he, alongside fellow climber and friend Fiona, prepare to climb a rocky outcrop. They laugh and joke around, but once he’s on the rock, Masa is completely focused. While the Masa on camera climbs, Masa in voiceover tells us about the climbing scene of his youth, in 1990s Japan.
At that time, he explains, climbing in his home country meant either sport climbing, using pre-drilled fixed bolts, or aid climbing, where mechanical devices or equipment provide upward momentum to a climber. When he first tried free climbing, he “immediately thought, this is it.”
Masa and partner climbing in winter. Photo: Screenshot
Live where the mountains are
It quickly became his life’s passion. Returning to Japan for a visit, we meet his family. His elderly mother worries about accidents in the mountains; but she seems to have accepted the fact that he isn’t going to stop. “Work is just for making a living,” he’d told her, when he announced his pending move to Scotland. “I want to climb mountains.”
Back in the UK, we follow Masa on a climbing trip. Though he packed sunblock, it’s snowing hard by the time they reach the route. It’s cold enough to snow, but not enough to freeze the turf firmly. The rock is black and slick with melting ice, making it too dangerous to climb.
The challenge, the harshness, the occasional defeat, are all part of the appeal, he explains. “I feel it is a sort of celebration of human life, to get into that sort of inhospitable places…That’s, to me, the Scottish Highlands.”
Fickle weather conditions force Masa to retreat. Photo: Screenshot
He’s been climbing in Scotland since 2000, and in that time, he has noticed the snow can no longer be relied upon to cover Torridon Hill in December. True winter climbing, he says, is harder to get nowadays. Still, he’s grateful to have experienced what he has.
As the film draws to a close, shifting between Masa in Scotland and Japan, we see him climbing and reminiscing with his fellow climbers. Scottish trad climbing is a small, tightly knit community. They all have a story about climbing with Masa, from his sometimes anachronistic equipment to his attempt to acclimatize to the cold by dousing himself in ice water. That Masa belongs in this place, in this community, is demonstrated rather than said.
