Documentary on Latvian mountaineer Teodors Ķirsis to premiere in November

A documentary about Latvian mountaineer Teodors Ķirsis, titled “The Road Never Ends” (Ceļš nekad nebeidzas), will reach cinema screens in November after four years of work. The premiere is set for 12 November at 19:00 in the PEPSI hall of the Forum Cinemas Centrs cinema, which has the largest screen in the Baltics at 242 m². The film tells the story of a man whose life was closely tied to Latvian climbers' path towards the world's highest peaks.

Kirsis, known to many as Tedis, is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of Latvian mountaineering. Since the early 1990s his name has been linked with the first significant achievements of Latvian climbers on the world's highest summits.

Archive material from several countries

During production, more than 70 hours of archive material were located and studied in Latvia and abroad, including previously unpublished footage from Ķirsis's life and expeditions. The filmmakers worked with items from various archives and private collections, and searched for evidence in the Nepalese Himalayas and in New Zealand.

A special place in the film is given to footage shot by Ķirsis himself, along with his personal notes and diaries, which let viewers see his life and climbing career from his own perspective. The story is supplemented by recollections of people who climbed with him. The mountaineers Imants Zauls, Ilgvars Pauls, Juris Ulmanis and others appear in the film.

The director's view

Film author and director Viktors Buda stresses that Ķirsis's path from the Soviet era to independent Latvia is the story of a man who, despite hardship, kept moving forward and looking for the next peak. According to him, in Ķirsis's story a summit was never the end – after each climb another road began. Buda says the story is not only about mountains, but also about what drives people onward when the road becomes difficult.