Documentary on Latvian mountaineer Teodors Ķirsis premieres in Riga

The documentary "The Road Never Ends" ("Ceļš nekad nebeidzas" in Latvian) has premiered at the Forum Cinemas theatre in Riga. The film focuses on Teodors Ķirsis, a Latvian mountaineer who died in 2003. According to its makers, his life story is closely tied to Latvia's path towards the world's highest peaks.

Known to fellow climbers as Tedis, Ķirsis is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of Latvian mountaineering. Since the early 1990s his name has been linked with the first significant Latvian achievements on the world's highest summits.

Four years of work with archives

The film took four years to make. During that time, more than 70 hours of archive material from various archives and private collections in Latvia and abroad, including the Nepalese Himalayas and New Zealand, were located and studied. Some of the footage has not been published before. The film also uses material Ķirsis filmed himself, along with his personal notes and diaries, and recollections from people who climbed with him. Mountaineers Imants Zauls, Ilgvars Pauls and Juris Ulmanis appear in it.

The film's author and director, Viktors Buda, stresses that Ķirsis's life, from the Soviet era to independent Latvia, is the story of a man who did not give up in the face of hardship and kept looking for the next summit. "We often think the summit is the destination. But in Teodors's story, the summit was never the end. After each climb, the next road begins. And perhaps that is why this story is not only about mountains. It is a story about each of us," Buda said.

Ķirsis's achievements

Ķirsis began mountaineering as a student in 1968. He reached all the peaks above 7,000 metres on Soviet territory and received the "Snow Leopard" title for it. After Latvia restored its independence he turned to the Himalayas. In 1993, on Latvia's first Himalayan expedition, he climbed the 8,167-metre Dhaulagiri together with Zauls and Pauls. On 14 May 1995 he and Zauls became the first Latvians to reach the summit of Everest. By 2002 the two had climbed the highest peaks of all continents, completing the "Seven Summits" programme.

Ķirsis led more than 50 mountain expeditions and wrote two books on mountaineering. He died on 9 December 2003 on Mount Cook in the Southern Alps of New Zealand, together with three other expedition members.

Screenplay co-author and editor Reinis Ūbelis, composers Staņislavs Judins and Mareks Radzevičs, and editors Monta Bubuce and Toms Krauklis also worked on the film. Actor Ģirts Krūmiņš voiced the diary narration. An international English-language version has also been made.