The Mountains review – a beautiful portrait of a family's attempt to process a tragedy

The Guardian

5 days ago

In his debut feature, Christian Einshøj tends to the hidden wounds of family by rewinding to the past. As a young boy, he moved from Norway to Denmark with his parents and his brother Frederik. The change was supposed to be temporary. Tragedy, however, struck: Kristoffer, one of Einshøj's brothers, was born with a terminal condition. His illness and later death cast a dark shadow over a once tightly knit household: they would never return to Denmark to live as a family again.
Through voiceover, Einshøj recalls this painful history with profound introspection, as well as humour. Grainy home videos, largely shot by Einshøj's father, Søren, resurface, but while Søren used his camera to preserve Kristoffer's memories before his death, Einshøj turns to film-making as a means of reconciliation. Unable to process Kristoffer's death, Søren retreats into the numbing grind of work. Meanwhile, Einshøj has grown apart from his surviving brothers, Frederik and Alex, both of whom experience periods of depression as a result of their shared trauma.
It is perhaps due to the confessional nature of Einshøj's project that, after years of silence, the brothers finally open up to one another about their deepest fears and anxieties. At times, the documentary has the freewheeling charm of a road movie, with Einshøj embarking on various journeys to bring his scattered family together. In one particularly touching sequence, filled with the deadpan humour of Einshøj's narration, the three brothers dress up in superhero costumes. Behind them is the majestic mountain range of their childhood home; with the young men now standing shoulder to shoulder, a beautiful picture of love and unity emerges from the heartaches of yesterday.
The Mountains is on True Story from 8 August