Temperatura wrzenia (1976)

Report on the Polish high mountain expedition to the Karakorum mountains in 1975. The women's expedition (Anna Okopinska, Alicja Bednarz, Alison Chedwick-Onyszkiewicz, Anna Czerwinska, Ewa Abgarowicz, Halina Kruger-Syrokomska, Krystyna Palmowska, Maria Mitkiewicz, Sylva Kysylkova), led by Wanda Rutkiewicz, was accompanied by a male team (Leszek Cichy, Andrzej Lapinski, Marcin Zachariasiewicz, Marek Janas, Krzysztof Zdzitowiecki, Andrzej Zajaczkowski) led by Janusz Onyszkiewicz. The venture ended successfully - conquering two peaks: Gasherbrum II and the virgin Gasherbrum III. However, these sports achievements, significant in the world of alpinism, remain in the background of the film. This is because the filmmakers focused their attention on the role of the expedition leader and, above all, on the relationship between him and the team. Therefore, the scenes of sharp discussions in subsequent bases, conversations held in tents and over the radio, exposing the conflict between the majority of the group and Wanda Rutkiewicz, dominate the film and focus the viewer's attention. The accusations against the expedition leader, sometimes stemming from private ambitions and animosities, from personal dramas and disappointments of the participants, and sometimes having their justification in the "dictatorial" methods of Wanda Rutkiewicz, concern both her decisions at the various stages of the expedition and the style of making them. Disputes, in which emotions reach the title "boiling point," however, do not completely obscure the feat itself. The camera also captures other events related to the expedition: the team's preparations for the expedition, the negotiations with rebellious Pakistani porters, the gradual, arduous execution of tasks, the establishment of bases and routing, the struggle against the cold, one's own fatigue and weakness, and finally the successful attack on the summit.