The Mountains

A beautiful portrait of a family where the male members are incapable of communicating with each other. In Christian Einshøj’s brave, personal, and very funny documentary, THE MOUNTAINS, he closely follows his own family 25 years after the tragedy that left a deep mark.

As a child, Christian moved from Denmark to Norway with his parents and three brothers. After one of his brothers fell gravely ill, his father bought a video camera to document the little time they had left with him. The brother’s passing left a deep mark on the little family, and the videotapes are a testimony of a bygone era. Slowly but surely, the men in the family have drifted apart, incapable of talking together and processing the grief.

Several decades later, Christian returns to the country he grew up in, hoping to break the ice. Through home videos going back 30 years and conversations with his parents and brothers, he tells a deeply moving story with warmth and humor – helped by superheroes along the way.

«As it stands, the film is an engaging exploration of grief and the unhealthy ways men bottle up their feelings. Constructing a film with genuine emotion and heart, Einshøj’s The Mountains is well worth the emotional journey.»
– Courtney Small, That Shelf –

Director

Christian Einshøj (born in 1985 in Denmark) grew up in Norway. He attended the European Film College in Ebeltoft. Einshøj has worked as an editor on several award-winning films and documentaries, including Q's Barbershop (2019) and Darkland (2017). He made his directorial debut with the short documentary How I Live, as You Wanted To Know (2014). His second short documentary, Haunted (2018), won the award for best international short film at HotDocs in Toronto. The Mountains (2023) marks his first feature-length documentary, where he took on multiple roles as a writer, director, cinematographer, and editor. The film premiered at CPH:DOX in March 2023.

This film is part of