Skywalkers: A Love Story movie review- Romancing the heights

Skywalkers: A Love Story poster

Film: Skywalkers: A Love Story
Cast: Angela Nikolau, Ivan Beerkus
Director: Jeff Zimbalist, Maria Bukhonina
Rating: 3/5
Runtime: 100 min

This adrenaline-generating documentary is about ‘Rooftopping' - a fairly new practice of scaling skyscrapers and showcasing it to the world at large through Instagram or social media feeds. Apparently, this adventure sport of sorts emerged from Russia with several youngsters putting their lives at risk trying to scale mammoth perpendicular towers in search of a high and maybe some glory. They are the adrenaline junkies of Gen Next but they want to be known as artists who have created their own sub-genre as they go along on adventures criss-crossing countries around the world.

The film opens with a warning "This film contains extremely dangerous and illegal activity. Do not attempt to imitate." The directors then take us directly to the well-travelled daring couple who are now attempting to climb the 118-story megatall skyscraper, Merdeka 118, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. To top that they are also attempting a bold acrobatic stunt on the spire. Can they do it and salvage both their career and relationship?

Director Jeff Zimbalist, a former rooftopper himself, has made ‘Pelé: Birth of a Legend' and ‘The Two Escobars' before this. So he is quite an able hand in the sports documentary genre. Now, with co-director Maria Bukhonina, he captures Angela and Vanya/Ivan in their tension-ratcheting climb on the megatall structure. This documentary took seven years to make. So obviously there would have been several fractious moments between the couple as they scale volatile emotional highs and preposterous physical ones. But the title signifies a love story between the two central characters and their extreme art more than their relationship with each other. Their relationship with each other does have a few splutters but they eventually die down in the couple's quest for an escalated high.

The documentary opens with scenes from 2019 showing Nikolau and Beerkus prepping to climb to the top of the spire of the one of the tallest buildings in the world, the 2,227 feet tall Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The narrative then cuts back to Angela and Vanya's individual stories before they come together in their joint venture of scaling heights. We also get to see some literal and romantic flip-flops in their relationship.

The movie has gorgeous camerawork, breathtaking stunt angles, and extreme stunts and is told in a thrilling, tension-escalating style. This couple make climbing feel romantic. Their drone assists and GoPro shots were simply mind-bending. With brief inputs about their coming together, their ensuing relationship and their interactions with the people closest to them, this documentary gives us some insight about what made them what they are. It's not very deep or revealing but enough for us to empathise with their need to scale perilous heights. This filmed experience is definitely better suited to an Imax screen. It's really a pity that it has gotten a direct-to-OTT release.