North Face

North Face (Nordwand, 2008) is a German-language historical drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Philipp Stölzl and starring Benno Fürmann and Florian Lukas. An Austrian-German-Swiss co-production, 126 minutes, based on documented events from the summer of 1936.

The north face of the Eiger in the Swiss Alps was the last unclimbed major wall in Europe. Nazi Germany turned the ascent into a propaganda objective — whoever reached the summit first would receive medals at the Berlin Olympics from Hitler himself. German climbers Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser rope up alongside two Austrian partners and begin the route. A journalist named Luise watches their progress through binoculars from the hotel terrace below. Then the weather turns. Trapped on an ice-covered rock face with no safe path up or down, the four men begin a desperate fight for survival that would become one of mountaineering's most haunting stories.

Stölzl shot the film on location in the Alps with minimal artificial light, and the physical conditions on screen are not performed — they're present. No triumphalist score, no heroic speeches. Just four men on a wall and a mountain that doesn't negotiate. Stream North Face (2008) online on iFILM.