Milan Doubek

Re-enactment of the attempt made in July 1961 by a french-italian group in order to climb Freney Pillar, in Mont Blanc massif. The expedition was composed by the frenchmen Pierre Mazaud, Robert Guillaume, Pierre Kohlmann and Antoine Vieille and by the italians Walter Bonatti, Andrea Oggioni e Roberto Gallieni. The groups arrived separatly to the camp of Col de la Fourche, but with the same aim. They united by chance to conquest the famous peak. The attempt is crushed by bad wheather and, during the descent, three French and an Italian will die.

Pierre Mazeau has managed to unite three of his passions which seem to have nothing in common, at a very high level: mountaineering, jurisprudence and policy. The Everest mountaineer, rescued from the Freney Pillar, the passionate jurist, the former sports minister, privy counsellor, and president of the French Constitutional Court is a charismatic personality. This sensitive film portrait follows a line, which Pierre Mazeaud himself has quoted: “Alpinism belongs to those who provide themselves with means to reach their goals, to those who are fully committed to a goal, to those, who know the value of solidarity of men, and to those who are aware that true human existence can only be fulfilled by proceeding with a team of roped-partners.”