Wanda Rutkiewicz, the most famous mountaineer in the world at the time, disappeared in 1992 on Kangchenjunga in Nepal. To this day, rumors persist that she is still alive. Director Eliza Kubarska ("The Wall of Shadows") goes to the Himalayas to search for traces. The story of a woman who changed the mountain world forever.
Wanda Rutkiewicz was the first European to climb Mount Everest and the first woman to climb K2. At the age of 49, she had conquered eight eight-thousanders. This record brought the mountaineer worldwide fame in the 1980s. At the same time, it caused a great deal of resentment in her home country of Poland, which was still behind the Iron Curtain at the time.
Wanda was ahead of her time. The electrical engineer insisted on her independence - on the mountain and in life. And she was still a long way from reaching her goal. She wanted to conquer all 14 eight-thousanders. In 1992 she set off on her "Caravan to Dreams". She never returned from her ascent of Kangchenjunga in the Himalayas. Since then she has been officially missing.
The Last Expedition is a complex portrait of a fascinating and idiosyncratic female mountaineer whose biggest mistake was being superior to her male mountaineering colleagues.
Still alive?
While some are convinced that Wanda fell, others are sure that she retreated to a hidden Tibetan women's monastery on the back side of Kangchenjunga. Her diaries contain references to a great longing for inner peace, a deep exhaustion, not from the exertion on the mountain, but from the endless battles for respect in the mountaineering community, and the deep grief over her third husband Kurt, the love of her life.
Searching for Traces in Nepal
Thirty years after Wanda Rutkiewicz disappeared, director Eliza Kubarska travels the Himalayas in search of clues. She, herself an experienced mountaineer, researches archives and the alleys of Kathmandu, speaks to Nepalese yak herders, and follows them along dizzying trails into deserted valleys far from civilization.
There, Kubarska shows farmers Wanda's photo. And again and again she meets people who believe they met the tall, charismatic woman a long time ago. And even in hidden Tibetan monasteries, the nuns think it's possible they have seen her once.
Wanda herself is present in The Last Expedition through a wealth of original material. The exceptional mountaineer has given countless interviews, made films herself, written books and kept an audio diary. The stories of her sister and her manager complete the picture.
Her last companion, the Mexican mountaineer Carlos Carsolio, and even some of Wanda's Polish opponents have their say in the film. Reinhold Messner also pays tribute to the achievements of this extraordinary woman.
Premiere tour The Last Expedition
- 07.01.25, 18.30 p.m., Riffraff, Zurich
- 08.01.25, 12.15 p.m., Bourbaki, Lucerne
- 08.01.25, 18.00 p.m., Rex, Thun
- 08.01.25, 20.00 p.m., Kino Rex, Bern
The official cinema release in Switzerland is January 9, 2025
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Credits: Cover image and text: Vinca Film GmbH