Whether it’s a historical drama, biopic, or documentary, Climbing for Life (2025) is one of the twenty-six titles that were part of the Official Selection, out of competition, at this year’s San Sebastian International Film Festival (SSIFF). The genre also applies to films such as Franz (2025), a co-production between the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland, directed by Agnieszka Holland. That film tells the story of the writer’s life, from his birth in 19th-century Prague to his death in Vienna in 1924. The two biographies at the SSIFF, separated by almost a century, have no shared existential experience, although they are united by the very fact of narrating the lives of their subjects and sharing the biographical genre. 

  

However, it is no easy task to turn a life into a reference point for an audiovisual narrative, such as those introduced in both cases: the life of Franz Kafka and that of the mountaineer Junko Tabei (1939–2016), the protagonist of Climbing for Life, who gained popularity after reaching the summit of Everest in 1975. Half a century ago, she became the first woman in the world to achieve this feat independently. After graduating in English Literature from Showa Women’s University, she founded the Ladies Climbing Club (LCC) of Japan in 1969. In fact, the university’s refusal to admit a woman like her to the male climbing club—based on the belief that women were unsuitable for the sport—was the reason for her determination to take on most of her challenges and lead expeditions where achieving the goal always came first, even if it meant risking her own life in many situations. 

  

Junko Tabei married Masanobu Tabei in 1965, a climber she met on one of her expeditions, with whom she had a daughter, Noriko, and a son, Shinya. However, motherhood never prevented her from continuing to practise the sport, which was always a priority for her. She climbed mountains such as Mount Fuji in Japan and the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps, but soon after reaching the summit of Annapurna on May 19th, 1970, the LCC decided to tackle Mount Everest. Five years of preparations were spent finding funding, manufacturing the equipment needed to withstand the mountain’s weather conditions and low temperatures, and, of course, physical training. The expedition consisted of fifteen women, two of whom were mothers, who decided to take on the challenge together. The all-female team travelled to Kathmandu in early 1975 and by May had set up camp at 6,300 metres. However, as they were about to begin the climb, an avalanche buried the women’s team and their guides. Although she could have died buried in the snow, her Sherpa managed to save her, and twelve days later, on May 16th, 1975, she became the first woman to reach the summit of Everest. 

  

Junji Sakamoto (1958) the film’s director, not only wanted to portray the real life of the first woman in the world to climb Mount Everest, Junko Tabei, but instead, he wanted to follow the protagonist beyond this date until she was diagnosed with cancer in 2012 and later died, in 2016. Sakamoto addresses the complexity of a life that shared a passion for mountains and family until the end of her days. I was able to see the film at the San Sebastian Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on September 19th as part of the Official Selection. On October 27th, it will open the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), before being released in Japanese cinemas four days later, on the 31st. Prior to that, however, it will open the Asian Film Festival Barcelona (AFFBCN) on October 29th. 

  

Sakamoto directed his 31st feature film with this movie, having begun his career as a filmmaker in 1989. When I asked him why he made this film, he told me that it was the idea of the actress who plays the lead role, Sayuki Yoshinaga, who had told him the story of Junko Tabei, perhaps because she knew her personally, or because she had read her book My Mountain Life – Up and Down, on which Riko Sakaguchi based the screenplay. Yoshinaga plays the most important role in a demanding and well-directed cast. It was she, who had already worked with Sakamoto thirteen years ago in A Chorus of Angels (2012) and who has appeared in almost 125 films to date, who infected him with her interest in this figure. An object of popular admiration as an example of overcoming adversity and success by reaching the summit of Everest, for Yoshinaga, it seemed important not to forget her contribution against gender stereotypes, in a world still as male-dominated as it was back then, where equality and parity were unimaginable. Therefore, she shared with Sakamoto the idea of paying tribute to this woman who cared about the status of all women, proving that we can all do anything and that the defence of our freedom cannot be questioned. She plays the leading role, not only making her character believable as if she were herself, but also through the great power of communication and transmission that emanates from her performance. Having received the Best Actress award from her country’s Academy four times in a row and being the only one to have earned it so far, is no trivial matter. The fact that the film covers an entire lifetime also required another great actress to portray the first stage of Junko Tabei’s career, which began and ended in the mountains, even after she was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, which took her life four years later. This actress is Rena Nonen, whose performance flows naturally and effortlessly from Yoshinaga’s. The cast also includes great actors such as Koichi Sato and Asuka Kudo, who play Masaaki Tabei, Junko Tabei’s husband, and Ryūya Wakaba and Fumino Kimura, who play her two children, Shinya Tabei and Noriko Tabei, respectively. 

  

Junko Tabei became a legend not only for being the first woman to reach the summit of Everest but also for continuing to take on the challenge and becoming the first woman to conquer the Seven Summits in 1992 after reaching the summit of Mount Vinson, the highest mountain in Antarctica, between 1990 and 1991, and in 1992, the summit of Puncak Jaya in Indonesia. Furthermore, she persisted in her research and fight against environmental degradation caused by air and water pollution, the greenhouse effect caused by the accumulation of gases due to the burning of fuels, deforestation and climate change, and the impact all of the above have on human health. In this regard, as director of the Himalayan Adventure Trust of Japan, a global organisation, she worked to preserve all natural environments and, in particular, to care for the mountains, personally participating in expeditions to clean up and manage waste in the natural environments she knew so well, to raise awareness of the need for sustainable development for the future of our planet. 

  

During our conversation in San Sebastián, Sakamoto explained that preparations for making this film were not easy. This was especially true considering the weather conditions and low temperatures in the area where filming was to take place. To make the story believable, these conditions had to be extreme and, wherever the location was, Everest had to be recognisable in one way or another. Although the ascent of Everest was filmed on Mount Fuji, it was not until the film crew travelled there for the second time that filming could begin, as the first attempt was unsuccessful and the director, actors and actresses, as well as the film’s crew, had to withdraw, unable to cope with the adverse weather conditions they faced. However, the film was eventually completed successfully after overcoming all the obstacles and difficulties presented by the demands of filming. Okiku and the World (2023), Sakamoto’s penultimate film, was part of the programme for the Asian Film Festival Barcelona (AFFBCN) this year, and Face (2000) was presented at the SSIFF in 2000. 

  

The question of the subtitle of this text is very fitting, as José Luis Guerin pointed out at the awards ceremony of this year’s San Sebastián Film Festival, when he received the Jury Prize. It seems as if, for some audiences, a documentary is not a film, but something else that will never match a ‘real’ film. Fortunately, this makes no sense in productions such as Climbing for Life, which are a true cinematic challenge. The film tells the story of Junko Tabei, the first woman to break gender stereotypes by reaching the summit of Everest in 1975 and completing the Seven Summits in 1992. Crucially, it is also the story of a life marked by the fight against environmental degradation and the preservation of mountains for a sustainable future.