Iceland review - 2015, Page 20

18 ICELAND REVIEW
role, he adds.
Initially, Baltasar had hoped to film part
of the project on Iceland’s highest peak,
Hvannadalshnjúkur (2,110 meters, 6,922
feet), among other places in Iceland. “It
didn’t work out because the mountain
scenes had to be shot in January so we
needed to be higher up. It’s often cloudy
in Iceland in winter but as Everest is above
the clouds there was sun up there,” he says,
explaining that Hvannadalshnjúkur is at
a much lower altitude than at the filming
location on Everest, which was at around
3-4,000 meters.
TRAGEDY ON EVEREST
Nepal has been struck by three major trag-
edies during the two years since work on
the film began. In April 2014 an avalanche
on Everest killed 16 Nepalese guides, in
October 2014, 43 people died in a snow-
storm (in the Himalayas but not on Everest)
and in April 2015 an earthquake struck,
killing more than 9,000 people and injuring
23,000, causing devastation nationwide.
A second unit crew was shooting some
scenes on Everest when the 2014 avalanche
fell. No one was injured but filming was
halted. Some of the three dozen sherpas
who had worked as actors and assistants
on the film earlier that year were booked
to climb Everest when the avalanche fell in
April. Baltasar says he had been very con-
cerned about their safety. “It was difficult
not knowing if any of them had died. We
later heard that they were ok but of course
if it’s not your tragedy it’s someone else’s.”
When asked how the recent tragedies
will impact on the release of his film, he
says that they were simply out of his con-
trol. “We made a movie about a disaster
which at the time, in 1996, was the big-
gest disaster to have happened on Everest.
During the almost two years since we start-
ed filming the project, there have been two
even bigger tragedies [on Everest]. We have
only tried to make the best possible film we
can make,” he explains.
Baltasar emphasizes that Everest is about
the dangers of commercializing nature.
“This is a problem that exists everywhere—
in Iceland too. Here we had people flying
to the volcano [during the active eruption
at Holuhraun 2014-2015] to take selfies.
Nature is not a theme park. I want people
to think about man vs. nature. But, I’m not
a preacher.”
EPIC YET INTIMATE
Baltasar says he hopes that the film will
offer moviegoers a “ticket to another
world.” While there are plenty of huge
sweeping scenes of the mountains, it’s much
more than that, he says. “You’re conscious
that you’re on a big mountain but I wanted
the intimacy of indie with the scale of a big
epic Hollywood film.”
FILM
Jason Clarke as guide Rob Hall in Everest.