The Mountains

Two decades after the tragic death of his brother, the director Christian Einshøj’s family is falling apart. But when his overworked CEO dad is unexpectedly let off and decides to sell the family home, Christian goes back home in a final desperate attempt to assemble the family and recover what is lost. Armed with 30 years of home video, 75.000 family photos, and three tightly fit superhero costumes, he ventures into landscapes of long-lost time, in an attempt to confront a 25-year-old tragedy, and the hidden wounds left in its wake. It’s a story of fathers and sons, of vast collections of stamps and amateur videography, of long-distance business-class flights and all the other ways in which we flee, instead of talking about that which hurts – and of the redemption that can follow when the silence is eventually breached. With a mindful and sensitive touch, present-day conversations about life and cinema enter a dialogue with archival home video footage in a profoundly moving and candidly original film.

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Direction: Christian Einshøj

Script: Christian Einshøj

Cinematography: Christian Einshøj

Editing: Christian Einshøj

Sound: Sune Kaarsberg

Music: Toke Brorson Odin

Production: Made in Copenhagen

Producers: Mathilde Hvid Lippmann

Executive producer: Helle Faber

Format: DCP

Color: Color

Production Country: Denmark

Production Year: 2023

Duration: 89'

Contact: CAT&Docs

Awards/Distinctions: Best International Feature Documentary Award, Emerging International Filmmaker Award – Hot Docs 2023, Honorable Mention – CPH:DOX 2023

Christian Einshøj

Filmography

2014 How I Live, as You Wanted to Know (short)
2018 Haunted (short)
2023 The Mountains