EOFT 21/22

One man – one world – one record?
For Jonas Deichmann problems don’t exist. He knows only one gear: Forward. A challenge no one has achieved before is just an open invitation to the extreme athlete to go above and beyond. After his sensational records covering distances in Eurasia, the Americas and from the North Cape to Cape Town, Deichmann takes on the biggest challenge of his career yet: A triathlon around the world – that’s like doing 120 Ironmans back-to-back. When Deichmann gets on his bike in Munich in September 2020 he faces 450 km of swimming, 19,000 km on his bike and 5,000 km of running – the adventure of a lifetime lies ahead.

In 1950, in the middle of the Guyanese jungle, indigenous people find the travel journal of French explorer Raymond Maufrais. Seventy years later, young adventurer Eliott Schonfeld reads the journal and sets out to follow Maufrais's path into the rainforest. What begins as a journey into the past, soon becomes a test of Schonfeld's mental and physical limits as he comes dangerously close to meeting the same dismal fate as Maufrais.

A female pro climber in Iran may sound like an oxymoron. But for Nasim Eshqi it’s a lived experience. The Iranian climber follows the call of the mountains and decides to go beyond the barriers imposed on women in her country, where she opened around fifty new lines. The film portraits an extra-ordinary woman determined to push the barriers opposing her passion, whether they are physical, social, psychological, geographical, or ideological.

Human multitool: French Mathis Dumas belongs to a new generation of alpine all-rounders. Out braving the elements on skis, on rope or with ice axes, his work has just begun: Being a professional outdoor photographer, the athlete and mountain guide has chosen a profession which demands high athletic, social and creative skills all at the same time. Usually his photo motif takes center stage – until now. We follow Mathis to his dream shot – the first attempt of an exposed highline in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif.

Snowboard pro Elias Elhardt and drone pilot Sebastian Schieren are both masters of airtime: One with his snowboard and big aerials, the other with his camera drone in a new dimension of filmmaking. In PLAYING GRAVITY each of them finds a new way to trick the forces of nature and go head-to-head in an acrobatic race down the mountain.