Scream of Stone (1991)

Germany/France/Canada 105m, Colour
Director: Werner Herzog; Cast: Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Stefan Glowacz, Mathilda May, Donald Sutherland, Brad Dourif, Al Waxman, Chavela Vargas, Hans Kammerlander, Volker Prechtel

Scream of Stone is loosely based on the story of an Italian climber who claimed to have reached the summit of Cerro Torre in 1959 before losing his partner to an avalanche on their descent. Filmed on location in Patagonia on the steep slopes of this very mountain, Herzog captured climbing sequences that are highly realistic, and at times breathtaking. Despite a convoluted plot and some truly terrible dialogue, this is one of the first non-documentary climbing films that explored the difference between mountaineering and sport climbing – and the apparent animosity between the two camps (Klaus Ming January 2019).