Old meets new on Everest in Beyond the Edge

NEW Zealand director Leanne Pooley has produced an updated version of the documentary about the first summit of Everest .

Sonam Sherpa and Chad Moffitt in Beyond the Edge.

THE successful climb to the summit of Mount Everest, which was revealed to the outside world on Coronation Day 1953, was the subject of a documentary film, The Conquest of Everest, released later that year.

New Zealand director Leanne Pooley has now produced an updated version of the story with Beyond the Edge, which contains a good deal of footage from the earlier film (with a largely new commentary), interspersed with re-enacted scenes that feature Chad Moffitt as Edmund Hillary, the NZ beekeeper who, in the company of Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, was first to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain. Sonam Sherpa plays Tenzing in the re-enacted scenes, with John Wraight as the expedition leader, John Hunt.

This painstaking re-examination of the expedition, and of the tenacious men who conquered the mountain, is, perhaps, rather specialised fare. But the skilful combination of old and new footage, almost seamlessly spliced together, still provides riveting material for viewers in a more cynical age.

Beyond the Edge (G)

2.5 stars

Limited release