Annapurna

Scale the heights of human endurance with Annapurna, a gripping archival film adapted from Maurice Herzog’s book, with narrative crafted by Janet Adam Smith and Nea Morin, narrated by Herzog and Edward Byrne, and scored by Tony Aubin’s evocative music. This mid-century chronicle thrusts you into the 1950 French expedition—Herzog, Louis Lachenal, Jean Couzy, and Gaston Rébuffat—battling to conquer a 27,000-foot Himalayan peak. The camera climbs with them: ice axes bite into frozen slopes, breaths fog in thin air, ropes taut against sheer cliffs as they summit Annapurna, a triumph etched in frost and grit. But glory turns grim—disaster strikes on the descent, a blizzard claws at their victory, frostbite claims fingers, and survival hangs by a thread. With stark footage and the climbers’ own voices, the film captures a saga of ascent and anguish, a mid-20th-century testament to courage and cost. Archival Moments revives this mountain epic—subscribe to ascend more from the peaks of history!