The Magic Mountain

“Ceci n’est pas un commencement, ceci est une fin,” says a male voice – this is not a beginning, this is an end. The camera slowly pans over mountain landscapes made of paper, small explosions flare up and disrupt the idyll. “The path into the Panjshir valley is wonderful. It’s called the “path of light”, but you need a lot of strength to reach the end,” continues the voice in French. Yonder comes closer and closer. Striking images in the film recount the adventurous life of Adam Jacek Winkler, a Polish refugee in Paris. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, his life took a dramatic turn. Overcoming administrative barriers as a “sans papier”, he fulfils his dream of travelling to distant places; he fights against the Communist Soviet Army in Afghanistan alongside Commander Massoud and is nicknamed “Adam Khan”. Like a lost knight with a vision, he fights for freedom on the side of Afghan mountain people with a great deal of courage and a very strong will. He narrowly escapes death many times and describes the adventures in his diary. Rumanian filmmaker Anca Damian has brought this biographic material to life in her moving docudrama. It is the second film in her trilogy dedicated to heroism which began with “Crulic – The Path to Beyond” (2011), for which she won many international awards. Her blend of animation techniques portrays the different stages of his life story, supplemented with photos, paintings and tape recordings from his daughter’s estate. Several years after his return to France, historical events overtake him again: only a few months after Commander Massoud was assassinated by the Taliban in September 2001, Winkler died while mountain climbing in the alps. (ml)
Voices: Christophe Miossec, Lizzie Brochère