‘Skywalkers: A Love Story’ Review: Exhilarating Doc Takes Relationship Issues to New Heights – Hollywood Reporter

That Skywalkers: A Love Story maintains its grip in your consideration regardless of a few of director Jeff Zimbalist’s florid aesthetic decisions testifies to the energy of the documentary’s central narrative. On the coronary heart of this terrifying and exhilarating Sundance entry about two Russian daredevils making an attempt to save lots of their relationship is a poignant lesson in belief.

Earlier than Angela Nikolau and Ivan “Beerkus” Kuznetsov fell in love, they had been rivals. The Russian rooftoppers — a time period used to explain individuals who illegally scale tall buildings with out protecting tools — engaged in an unofficial competitors of kinds. Nikolau, who was one of many few, if not the one, girls within the sport on the time, felt each impressed by and envious of Beerkus’ success. In contrast to different rooftoppers, the soft-spoken city adventurer’s Instagram posts about his architectural conquests lent knowledgeable air to the criminality. This posture partially influences Nikolau to see every roof as a chance to increase her artistry. The previous Russian gymnast turns into well-known for her elegant poses — serving to to show the damaging exercise into an artwork kind. 

Like Free Solo or Man on Wire (which had its personal Sundance premiere 16 years in the past), Skywalkers: A Love Story introduces audiences to a extra thrill-seeking sliver of our world. By means of voiceover narration by Nikolau and Beerkus and useful intertitles, Zimbalist (Pelé: Delivery of a Legend, Favela Rising) grounds us within the guidelines and conventions of rooftopping with out shedding the momentum of the first narrative. A lot of the motion is equipped by go professional movies gathered by the individuals, however Zimbalist’s nervy slicing (with help from Alannah Byrnes) offers the archival clips and vérité-style footage shot by Renato Borrayo Serrano and Pablo Rojas urgency. 

The movie opens with a fraught state of affairs. In an try to save lots of their relationship (extra on that later), Nikolau and Beerkus resolve to climb Merdeka 118 in Malaysia, which on the time of capturing was the tallest constructing on the planet. After managing to bypass safety on the entrance, the couple finds themselves trapped in an lively building zone. The chimes of the elevator sign that safety has been referred to as. To go undetected, Nikolau and Beerkus assemble a “cave” — they re-arrange constructing supplies in a nook — to cover their crouching our bodies. 

With this dramatic introduction, Skywalkers: A Love Story grabs us and doesn’t let go. Zimbalist, who spent six years accumulating footage, whizzes us again to 2018 to supply background on how Nikolau and Beerkus started their careers. Half I constructs a portrait of Nikolau as a fiercely unbiased lady struggling to search out her place on the planet. She grew up within the circus and, via conversations along with her grandma, we come to grasp that these years following her mother and father on the highway had been the happiest. Unhappiness and despair settled into Nikolau’s life after her father left her mom for an additional lady. The sudden departure sours the rooftopper’s angle towards relationships. Survival for Nikolau depends upon relying solely on your self. 

Beerkus, whose story makes up most of Half II, follows the identical ethos even when he wouldn’t articulate it in such blunt phrases. The tumultuousness of his childhood got here from the depth of his mother and father’ arguments. He began rooftopping as a youngster when he joined a neighborhood gang of boys who trespassed to climb and drink on high of Moscow’s tallest buildings. Beerkus didn’t imbibe, however he discovered that top within the sky, overlooking town, he may breathe extra simply. Scaling these buildings supplied a reprieve from his household and have become a form of remedy. 

Nikolau and Beerkus meet, fairly humorously, due to a model deal. In introducing a extra inventive component to rooftopping, Nikolau attracts the gaze of others inside her subject. That features Beerkus, whose sponsors demand totally different and extra stunning content material from him. A part of Skywalkers speaks to the extractive relationship between manufacturers and the influencers, nurtured partly by an insatiable urge for food for content material. The algorithm directly drives our cravings for novelty and shields us from what that requires. 

After seeing Nikolau’s pictures — ethereal photographs by which the gymnast contorts her physique into totally different shapes whereas standing on a ledge — Beerkus sends her a message. So begins their epic collaboration. Pushing previous her preliminary hesitation, Nikolau flies to China to fulfill her future boyfriend. In fact, romance will not be on both of their minds initially. What they do know is that they work effectively collectively, and their partnership will increase their follower account and brings in additional sponsors. 

Zimbalist is environment friendly with their early courtship, shifting us alongside narratively and emotionally with voiceover summaries and a playful rating. These decisions assist once we are simply getting acquainted with the duo, however there’s an over-reliance on them in later sections. One needs Zimbalist would let his extraordinary footage communicate for itself; these movies reveal extra in regards to the couple than their voiceovers, which embody unnecessarily clichéd exposition. Whether or not it’s go-pro footage of a madcap escape in France or excerpts of interviews the pair did in Russia after they introduced their relationship, we will see that Nikolau and Beerkus have fallen madly, deeply in love. 

Their affection is underscored by the adjustments of their climbs. You’ll be able to hear Beerkus, who by no means needed to care about anybody however himself throughout his conquests, reminding Nikolau to watch out. “Don’t rush, keep protected” turns into the tagline of their relationship — an indication of elevated mutual dependence and care. 

It’s heartbreaking when it morphs right into a supply of pressure. The emotional panorama Zimbalist charts with Skywalkers: A Love Story is spectacular. Lockdowns on the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic enfeebled Beerkus and Nikolau’s careers. The Russian conflict on Ukraine and the elevated state repression that adopted anti-war protests unsettles the lovers. Any relationship would undergo below the concurrent threats of world illness and conflict, however there’s explicit heartbreak when this destiny befalls Beerkus and Nikolau. 

The choice to climb Merdeka 118 is a determined try to make some cash and save their relationship. The couple’s fights, which began earlier than the pandemic, hold getting worse. Beerkus develops anxieties round Nikolau’s security, and he or she accuses her boyfriend of holding her again. Due to Zimbalist’s construction, it’s straightforward to attach their childhood traumas to threads in their very own battle. With out sponsors, cash can be a difficulty. When Beerkus and Nikolau resolve to climb the Malaysian constructing regardless of the chance to their lives (they might find yourself in jail, die or find yourself in jail and die), we’re, in opposition to our personal higher judgment, rooting for them. 

Within the ultimate act of Skywalkers: A Love Story, the stakes are larger. Zimbalist chronicles the ten weeks main as much as the historic climb like a heist. It’s thrilling to observe the pair collect intel on the constructing, give you a plan and observe the routine they plan to do on its small roof. There are clashes and arguments, tears and accidents. However there are additionally moments of pleasure and a heat feeling that comes from watching two individuals understand how a lot they want one another. 

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