8½ Circles

On the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s, two warring leaders come face to face. The victorious Nesib, Emir of Hobeika, lays down his peace terms to rival Amar, Sultan of Salmaah. The two men agree that neither can lay claim to the area of no man’s land between them called The Yellow Belt. In return, Nesib adopts Amar’s two boys Saleeh and Auda as a guarantee against invasion. Twelve years later, Saleeh and Auda have grown into young men. Saleeh, the warrior, itches to escape his gilded cage and return to his father’s land. Auda cares only for books and the pursuit of knowledge. One day, their adopted father Nesib is visited by an American from Texas. He tells the Emir that his land is blessed with oil and promises him riches beyond his wildest imagination. Nesib imagines a realm of infinite possibility, a kingdom with roads, schools and hospitals all paid for by the black gold beneath the barren sand. There is only one problem. The precious oil is located in the Yellow Belt.

Shrimpers and oilmen clash when an ambitious wildcatter begins constructing an off-shore oilrig.

When a youth football team of 12 boys, aged 11-16, and their 25-year-old coach is trapped deep inside a cave in Northern Thailand, thousands of volunteers and soldiers from around the world unite in a race against time to find them.

A group of top female agents from American, British, Chinese, Colombian, and German government agencies are drawn together to try and stop an organization from acquiring a deadly weapon to send the world into chaos.

Newly widowed Frank Fogle embarks on a journey to Ireland to scatter his late wife’s ashes. His estranged son, Sean, recently released from prison, agrees to join only when his father promises that they’ll never see each other again following the trip. After revelations surface about an old flame of Frank’s wife and a charming hitchhiker with plans of her own intervenes, father and son find themselves drawn together in unexpected ways.

Adventurer Jack Hunter sets off in pursuit of a legendary tomb, meeting dangerous old adversaries, and even more dangerous old flames, along the way.

The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.

Traumatized by a fishing boat accident many years before, Joe Gastineau has given up his hopes for a life beyond the odd jobs he takes to support himself. That quickly changes when nomadic club singer Donna de Angelo and her troubled teen-age daughter enter Joe’s life. Both mother and daughter fall for Joe, increasing the friction between them. The tension continues to build when Joe invites them on a pleasure cruise up the Alaskan coast, discovering too late that the trip may cost them their lives.

A 12-year-old boy manages to flee a Communist concentration camp on his own, through sheer will and determination. All he has in his possession is a loaf of bread, a letter to deliver to someone in Denmark, and a compass to help get him there.

Hiding out with his son Taylor on the Mexican coast, Nero hopes to put his violent Special Forces career behind him. But after Nero’s home is attacked and Taylor is abducted, the mysterious Mzamo orders Nero to slaughter the members of three rival crime syndicates. If he fails, Taylor will die. Now, with bullets flying and bodies dropping as Nero completes his mission, he races to find Mzamo’s hideout and seek revenge.

Follows a pair of siblings who love but distrust each other as they embark on a white-water rafting trip with a small group. One of their friends from childhood turns out to be more dangerous than he appears.

If one man changes his path, will he be able to change his destiny...or will he only delay the inevitable? Ryu and Ken are two traditional warriors who find themselves isolated in some corner of Japan to carry out their training as fighters, trying to master an ancient style of fighting, known as "Ansatsuken" (The Killing Fist). There they will begin to learn about the mysterious past of their trainer, Goken, and the tragic and dark legacy that the Ansatsuken style hides. Will they be able to choose their destiny or will history repeat itself once again?

In feudal India, a warrior who renounces his role as the longtime enforcer to a local lord becomes the prey in a murderous hunt through the Himalayan mountains.

Wenches Scarlett and Giselle fix each other up for their wedding, in which they would each marry their groom. Upon realizing that both their grooms were the same man, Jack Sparrow, the two wenches found themselves in an auction led by the Auctioneer. This short film serves as a prequel to The Curse of the Black Pearl, and explains just why Jack Sparrow's boat the Jolly Mon was seen sinking at the beginning of the whole story; why the wenches were so upset with him; and how Cotton lost his tongue.

The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again as the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle begins.

In the not-too-distant future, two drifters traveling through the desert stumble across the biggest gold nugget ever found and the dream of immense wealth and greed takes hold. They hatch a plan to excavate their bounty, with one man leaving to secure the necessary tools while the other remains with the gold. The man who remains must endure harsh desert elements, ravenous wild dogs, and mysterious intruders, while battling the sinking suspicion that he has been abandoned to his fate.

In 1993, Maureen’s six-year-old daughter Amina is snuck out of the country by her ex-husband, Karim. After years of unsuccessful attempts to find her, Maureen intersects with a professional retriever of internationally abducted children who promises to help her find Amina in exchange for her collaboration.

A U.S. Army Captain uses her years of tactical training to save humanity from sixteen nuclear missiles launched at the U.S. as a violent attack threatens her remote missile interceptor station.

After being punished for retreat from combat, Ranger David Martel is given command of the Liandra, a haunted 20-year old Minbari fighting ship. He's escorting ambassadors to a secret archaeological site, the oldest city on record and a clue to a dangerous ancient race.

When selfish and arrogant millionaire Donald Carson fractures his leg during a desert vacation, his wife, Geraldine, leaves with their friend Joseph Duncan to supposedly get help. However, the two of them are really lovers who are leaving Carson to die in the heat. Slowly, Carson realizes he is on his own and vows revenge on the traitorous couple. Having had a privileged life, Carson must now use his wits to stay alive.

Avid for steep slopes, Marco Siffredi (1979-2002) obeys only one rule: not to fall. This gifted kid with hair sometimes blond peroxidized, green or blue clashed in his valley: Chamonix, mecca of mountaineering. His thing was to go up and down on a snowboard. . 90 minutes September 8, 2002, altitude 8848 meters, rare oxygen, his head already brushing the sky and his snowboard running, Marco Siffredi, 23, rushes from the summit of Everest in the Horbein corridor and its slopes at 50 degrees . A year earlier, he had already made the first descent of the mountain on a snowboard. But there remains another corridor… more direct. It's not a challenge, just a reason to be... However, that day, at the top of the roof of the world, his trace is lost...

At the end of the 18th century, the wealthy French scholar Saussure comes to a small Alpine village and offers 1,000 pieces of gold to anyone who can lead him to the summit of Mont Blanc. The young farmer's son Jacques Balmat wants to take on the dangerous task, even though his father has told him from an early age about the mighty mountain spirits who guard a legendary treasure of gold on the mountain peak.

Filmed chronicle by mountain filmmaker Mario Fantin, of the 1964-1965 expedition of the Italian mountaineer Guido Monzino to the summits of Hoggar in the Algerian Sahara with the ascents of Garet el Djenoun, Tizouyag Nord, Saouinan and Iharen. The mountain ranges of the Hoggar desert turn out to be more complex and interesting than most mountaineers suspected at the time.

Lucien Berardini and Edmond Denis are two mountaineers who took part in the French expedition to Aconcagua (Andes Mountains) in 1954. Both suffered severe frostbite to their fingers and toes, and three years later, they set out to climb the Aiguille du Géant, a legendary route in the Mont Blanc massif. The camera closely follows the efforts of the roped party, an example of strength and self-sacrifice, until their victorious arrival at the summit.

René Collet, skier member of the French team, guides a friend from the summit of the Aiguille du Midi. This descent is an opportunity to focus on the remarkable elements of the terrain: the cable car and its work still in progress, the surrounding peaks (Capucin, Mont Maudit, Mont Blanc). The two skiers stop regularly, here to observe climbers scaling the south face of the Aiguille, there to visit the Cosmiques Laboratory. They even take the time to rescue a skier stuck in a crevasse at the Séracs du Géant, before continuing their descent in style onto the Mer de Glace.

Bastien Lardat and Jordi Noguere, two rope brothers, invite us to pay tribute to the pioneers of modern Pyrenees, through a new kind of sporting journey. Pierre and Jean Ravier opened the way several decades ago, drawing on the Pyrenean reliefs one of the most beautiful pages of amateur climbing excellence. In three days, climbing and connecting 3 legendary north faces by Ravier on foot is the crazy challenge that Bastien and Jordi have set themselves. 3 days, 3 routes, 85 km of pedestrian connection, to arrive at the end of the north face of the Tour de Marboré in Gavarnie, the Dièdre Jaune du Vignemale and the Embarradère du Pic du Midi d'Ossau.

A screen adaptation of the well-known novel by Roger Frison-Roche about the harsh lives of mountain guides and their families in the French Alps, near Chamonix and the French/Swiss/Italian borders... Like his father, Zian Servettaz is a dedicated mountain man. His Italian-born wife Bianca does not adjust well to his mountain village in France, and to the ever life-threatening dangers presented by his mountain guiding and climbing. She briefly returns to Italy and to her family. However, after Zian's insistence and trip to Italy, she returns to mountain life in the French Alps. Once back there, events will unfold, changing their lives as well as those of other mountain people forever.

Lignes chronicles the sublime interplay between alpine literature and an expedition seeking the true meaning of mountaineering. Four high-mountain guides—Matthieu Maynadier, Pierre Labbre, Matthieu Détrie, and Julien Dusserre—embark on a project: to summit Nangpai-Gosum, an unclimbed 7,000-meter peak in Nepal, using the "alpine style" adapted to the Himalayas—the toughest and purest approach of all. Through this expedition, Lignes attempts to answer the question: "Why do we climb mountains?" Why, despite the harsh conditions and exhaustion, do these four Alpine guides pursue a perilous dream in a realm that belongs to no one? Lignes finds some answers in the past, drawing on 150 years of alpine literature. Serving as both narrator and seasoned guide, Raymond Renaud takes us on a tour of his books and speaks of the "conquerors of the useless"—from the turn of the century to the present day.

Brian Blessed plays George Mallory in this intrepid recreation of his ill fated 1924 climb to Everest. Meeting Sir Chris Bonington, Rheinhold Messnerhe learns of the pitfalls that await him before setting off for his epic struggle with the mountain. Against all odds he reaches 26000 feet on the North face of Everest, and is a changed man

Les Etoiles de Midi is an engaging docudrama about some of the more spectacular exploits of French mountain climbers over the last several decades. In one re-enacted story, there is a wartime escape through the mountains, and in another, a daring rescue of a pair of climbers who had been missing. The actors themselves are adept at the sport of climbing, and they give the scenes an immediacy and real daring that brings the stories alive. A combination of their acrobatics and skill and the outstanding episodes in the history of French climbing creates a winning 78 minutes.

1967: Two of the world's best climbers, Yvon Chouinard and Royal Robbins, tackle the west face of Sentinel Rock, an iconic 2,100-meter granite peak located in Yosemite National Park, considered one of the most difficult in the world. The film's atmosphere is immersive, driven by a sober narrative that highlights the intimate relationship between man and the wall. The technical difficulty of the route, the prolonged physical effort, and the isolation reinforce the heroic dimension of this ascent. The documentary also reveals the essential solidarity between the climbers: each progression requires rigor, inventiveness, and total trust in both the equipment and the partner. This film is considered a benchmark in the history of mountain cinema. It testifies to the pioneering spirit of the era and the evolution of climbing techniques, perfectly illustrating the transition to a more athletic and thoughtful approach to large rock faces.

In a village near a deadly mountain ascent the people repeatedly have to help climbers in danger who didn't make it to the top, in fact nobody made it yet up there. Hansi Knoteck can't stand anymore the danger after a member of the rescue party dies and demands from Attila Hörbiger that he steps back from participating in his rescue efforts. Finally he relents but the villagers ostracize them. In the meantime Winnie Markus tries to seduce Richard Häußler who makes the life for his wife Viktoria von Ballasko a hell through his infidelities.

Miha invites his fiancée Minka to the dance, but he's tempted by another big desire of his - climbing. Frustrated Minka insists on the festivity, where she finds herself in a company of older hiker. However, all ends happily, as Minka and Miha, after many smaller adventures, meet at the top of Mount Triglav, where they sign the marriage contract, but also confirming their love for the mountains. In addition to its charming story, the movie features footage of picturesque Slovenian mountains.

Four experienced mountaineers climb the three floors of the Eiffel Tower through the pillars of the building. A police officer, overwhelmed by the events, does not succeed in arresting the intrepid who reach the summit with agility under the stunned eyes of tourists. They then abseil and happily throw themselves into the Seine to celebrate the feat.

In the heart of the Hoggar Mountains, Algerian and French climbers meet on the legendary walls of the central Sahara. More than just an ascent, Tissalatine tells the story of an encounter with oneself, with the land, and with history. The film also retraces Thomas Dulac's return, ten years later, to a site he helped to open up. Driven by the profound voice of singer Djam and the vision of director Hamza Mendil, Tissalatine unveils a living, vibrant Sahara, far removed from clichés, in a sweeping epic of adventure, brotherhood, and spiritual elevation.

In 1975, Raymond Renaud, Yves Pollet-Villard, Maurice Gicquel, Maurice Cretton, Jean Coudray, Yvon Masino, Walter Cecchinel, all teacher guides at ENSA in Chamonix, with the help of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, set out to cross the 2 peaks of the highest mountain in India. After 43 hours in a truck, 10 days of slow and difficult approach walking, helped by goats for the portage due to lack of sherpas, the base camp is set up on the Nanda Devi glacier. Two groups share the two eastern and western slopes, 3 kilometers separate them: the goal being to meet between the two summits by the ridge. But on the big day, with the monsoon, bad weather arrives with wind and snow, we will have to give up. Like the French expedition of 1951 which lost two mountaineers, Roger Duplat and Gilbert Vigne, to whom Paul Gendre and Louis Dubosc pay tribute.

This is Gaston Rebuffat's fourth film, in which, with several close friends, he discovers the sublime landscapes of the Alps. “Mont-Blanc is beautiful. I climbed it several times depending on the time, the color of the sky and the shape of the cornices and ridges. Because of the weather and also because of this feeling of altitude, Mont-Blanc provides great pleasure. For the guide, Mont Blanc is his garden, but the garden becomes more beautiful when shown to a friend. Personally, I really like the bivouacs; only there one penetrates a little the mystery of the altitude. That's why I immediately accepted when Tazieff expressed the desire to spend the night at the top of Mont Blanc in an igloo. The film won the Grand Prix at the Trento Film Festival in 1961.

In October 2019, Benjamin Védrines and Nicolas Jean climbed the northeast couloir (1,500 m, M3/M4, 65°) of Chamlang (7,321 m, Nepal) to an altitude of 7,240 meters, using alpine style with a bivouac. The young French team had initially aimed for the north pillar of this mountain, a favorite among top climbers. Although they had to abandon their ascent of the northeast couloir, their climb was selected for the Piolets d'Or "big list."