Edie Moore took care of her paralyzed husband for 30 years. When he dies, the octogenarian continues with her daily routine. While cleaning up, an old postcard with a mountain panorama falls into her hands and triggers the memory of a mountan climb in Scotland that she always wanted to go on. Her camping equipment might not be very modern, but she buys what‘s missing in the Highlands in Jonny‘s store and hires the young henpecked husband as her mountain guide. He could leave the small Scottish village behind him at some point with the money he‘s made. In the beginning the relationship between the old woman and the guide is still frosty, but at some point Jonny becomes impressed by how nonchalant Edie is in her convinction of being able to climb to the peak.

It isn‘t revealed whether Edie makes it, but the actress who plays Edie, British national treasure Sheila Hancock (84), did become the oldest conquerer of Mount Sullivan during the shoot. What Hancock achieves while playing EDIE is first-rate, but comfortably unspectacular: the result of her journey is far less important than the urge to fulfill a life‘s dream late in life and not giving up in the face of the obstacles. Without having to explictly state it, Edie‘s stubbornness and her approach to setbacks make it clear that she‘d rather die on the mountain than spend her last years in a retirement home arranging flowers. You can‘t imagine a more beautiful place than the postcard-like mountain panorama in the sunlight for that, but a death in the idyll would ruin the mood. And a lady like EDIE would never allow for that to happen of course.

Christian Klose (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy