It's a ski season in fast-forward: In the documentary "Downhill Skiers", you can experience first-hand how the downhill stars race from training to race to world championship. Is it enjoyable to watch or is it - to use the competition jargon - pushing the limits?
23.10.2025, 07:06
SDA
The film team led by director Gerald Salmina knows how to grab the audience. Ten years ago, they brought "Streif - One Hell Of A Ride" to the big screen. The new documentary "Downhill Skiers - Ain't No Mountain Steep Enough", which is now being released in cinemas, is also fast-paced. So much so that you sometimes forget to breathe, because you're cheering along - and thanks to action cams and drones - riding along with Swiss downhill stars Marco Odermatt, Franjo von Allmen and Justin Murisier during last year's season. Italian Dominik Paris and Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin also make an appearance. One of the most difficult moments in the movie is when Sarrazin had a serious accident.
Not for the faint-hearted
The longest slope in the Ski World Cup, the Lauberhorn, in real time is physically and mentally upsetting. "The emotions are surreal," says Priska Odermatt, Marco's mother, once.
And yet it's "only" a documentary, you want to keep telling yourself, you know the races and their respective outcomes from television. But the documentary is built like a really difficult downhill run: cold, bumpy and smooth, icy and soft, winding, terrifyingly fast and always challenging.
This also has to do with the rough, almost martial language used to report on this madness on the mountain: The material is "aggressive", the riders are "addicted to the risk", and they suffer - the Swiss Murisier even all the time, he is constantly in pain.
The Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde doesn't know whether he will ever be able to ski again. You can see his torn, bleeding shoulder more than once. And Sarrazin, who suffers a brain haemorrhage, at one point bathes in Lake Geneva instead of in the cheering crowd.
The spectators don't have much time to think about it. The next descent is always just around the corner. The movie is structured chronologically. But it does not work towards a climax. Instead, one climax follows the next from the very first second.
The spectators feel the same as the ski racers: you can't relax on the Lauberhorn. The best skiers need 2 minutes and 22 seconds to complete the 4.5 kilometers. The spectacle lasts over two hours in the cinema seat - a hell of a ride, even for the most hardened ski fan.
*This text by Nina Kobelt, Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.
