Review of the documentary Adam Ondra: Push the boundaries

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Adam Ondra was not yet thirty. Nevertheless, he is ranked among the best living rock climbers. In the feature-length documentary by Jan Šimánek and Petr Záruba, we follow him over the course of three years in private, at competitions and during training sessions, when he is intensively preparing for the Olympics in Tokyo.

Ondra is an athlete with extraordinary strength and agility. In addition to the monumental shots of the mountains, the visual leitmotif of the film is unsurprisingly the details of his taut, defined muscles, with the help of which he defies gravity on climbing walls and steep rocks. When the camera takes in his semi-naked body from the soffit, the four-time world champion resembles an antique statue of athletes thanks to the light used.

If we don’t count the animal sounds that Ondra makes while climbing, the breathtaking interplay of his hands and feet is his dominant way of self-expression. Cameraman Jan Šimánek, an experienced climber and expert in filming at high altitudes, often hung himself from the rock in order to capture the movement of the domestic Olympian, stretching hundreds of meters above the ground along the nearest ledge, from close range.

Not only with these adrenaline-fueled scenes, the Czech film is reminiscent of the documentary Free Solo about mountaineer Alex Honnold, who won an Oscar in 2019. Adam Ondra, like his American colleague, is a very shy and modest man. He does not tolerate long introspective speeches.

In the sample interview from the TV show Hyde Park, Civilization mostly just nods to the host. Obviously, it is not entirely obvious and comfortable for him to talk about his privacy. It is only when Daniel Stach asks him about sports disciplines and climbing techniques that he comes alive and answers with more developed sentences.

Also, the scene in which Ondra and her mother look through diaries with childhood photos and records of early sports achievements feels forced, like something that took place more at the initiative of the documentarians than at the initiative of the protagonist. Záruba and Šimánek were aware that it would not be easy to talk to Ondra and get under his skin. The key to his portrait was found elsewhere.

“We are still looking for love, because all we need is love,” a nun in an Orthodox monastery in the Macedonian mountains tells Ondra in the film’s prologue. The woman most likely has love for God in mind. Ondra, who does not present himself as a believer in the film, could put mountains on his behalf. And his partner Iva, also a top climber.

From Iva’s honest words, we learn more about Ondra than he tells us about himself with his brief answers. At the same time, their relationship dynamizes the narrative, which would otherwise be just a straightforward, monotonous and undramatic record of the smooth preparations for the Olympic Games. The tension between the needs of both partners brings a hint of conflict into the plot.

Right after the scene from the monastery, we watch how Ondra arranges his extensive collection of cups and medals on the newly installed shelves. Iva helps him. “I’m looking forward to you bringing your trophies,” her partner teases her. “Mine don’t fit there anymore,” he responds matter-of-factly. Similarly, the film prompts the question of whether there is even room for another person in Ondro’s life, the largest part of which is taken up by training and competitions.

The second guiding motif of the film is the search for balance. Not only physical, necessary in climbing, but also mental. Already in the first minutes, we see that meditation helps Ondra to manage his nerves, which in case of failure make themselves known with frustrated screams. During a conversation with a doctor who is having acupuncture, he expresses skepticism about mental coaches. They say they keep telling the same children’s fairy tales. Perhaps Iva must give him peace all the more. Literally, when it secures him while climbing, and metaphorically by supporting him in his personal life.

In parallel with Ondra’s ascent to the top, the documentary captures how Iva abandons her own climbing dreams due to her devotion to her partner. In the film’s most painful scene, she tearfully confides to the camera that she backed out so they could continue to be together. According to her, it is impossible for a couple to be two similarly ambitious people who constantly want to move somewhere, to overcome themselves.

With the approaching Olympics and growing media interest, other people are increasingly interfering in the relatively introverted world of partners. Trainers, masseurs, creators of video content for fans and sponsors and other experts trying to fine-tune Ondra’s body and media image to perfection.

After the new distribution of roles, Iva mainly takes care of Adam’s psychological support. In the first half of the film, we still see her, for example, training climbing juniors. Gradually, however, her scenes become less “action”, especially in contrast to Ondra, who in one round strengthens, climbs, jumps, shouts and smiles at the lenses. He is concentrated on a single goal, everything else ceases to exist for him. Intimate partner conversations also revolve around climbing.

Despite the enormous efforts made by the main actor of the film, ironically it is Iva whose life is undergoing a more significant transformation, developing somewhere. Ondra’s story consists of a cyclical repetition of certain activities, and at the end we leave him in a scene that mirrors the beginning of the documentary.

When he recalls at one point that since he was a child he wanted to do things to the fullest just like his dad, also a climber, and describes his parent as a workaholic, it is not clear whether he realizes how similar they are in this respect. The film portrays Ondra as a person oriented towards performance and first-class results. As he reveals to snowboarder Eva Samková behind the scenes of an event for Olympic athletes, he considers anything other than first place to be a failure. Participation in the Olympic Games alone did not satisfy him.

This is where the main paradox of film Adam Ondra and today’s society arises. When climbing, especially in nature, it looks most balanced, which is underlined by the soothing strings in the soundtrack composed and recorded by the Italian cellist Nicola Segatta. The sport, in which he is completely absorbed, but at the same time keeps him alert and stressed, because of which he cannot fall asleep before important races.

At the end of the film, Iva seems significantly more reconciled. She has given up on what her partner is still trying to do and is preparing for parenthood. However, her acceptance of the position of a mother and a loving wife can be read at the same time as a somewhat typical and rather bitter story of a woman who made a great sacrifice for the sake of a man and his career.

The sensitively conceived picture does not lead the audience to one or the other interpretation. On the basis of long-term time-lapse observation, and despite Ondro’s small sharing, he tries to shed light on the motivations of both partners, which remain hidden in carefully thought-out media outputs. He leaves it up to us what conclusions we draw based on the often breathtaking images of people and mountains.

Instead of a celebratory medallion, as offered by more mundane sports documentaries, this resulted in an ambivalent portrait of an exceptional athlete and a relationship full of challenges, in which, in addition to the limits of the human body, the boundaries of partner devotion are tested.