If you’ve competed in Ironman competitions and run many marathons, maybe climbing Mount Everest is not such a stretch.
Intrepid 52-year-old Bosnian athlete and filmmaker Tomislav Cvitanušić, a basketball star in Sarajevo as a youngster, recently made climbing Everest, the world’s highest mountain, his goal. His ascent is chronicled in the new documentary, The Deepest Summit, screening this weekend at AJB Doc.
In heading to the Himalayas, Cvitanušić wanted to tell a positive story: “to steal some of the media space from the everyday politics that is always quite pessimistic in the Balkans” as he puts it. He wasn’t an experienced cinematographer. “I needed someone to explain to me how to do the job with a GoPro because I am not professional,” he confides. That’s what brought him together with his collaborator Midhat Mujkić, a season industry professional with expertise in editing and photography.
“Going to Everest, the first thing you have to have is actually hope,” Cvitanušić says. He approached Al Jazeera Balkans for advice about what would be one of the first Bosnian attempts on Everest – and the broadcaster ended up supporting the venture.
This isn’t a conventional climbing film. “I wanted to come up with a more personal story about how I felt…and I also wanted to use this movie as a tool to send some kind of nice message in the Balkan region – a message of tolerance and peace,” he says. “When people see the movie, I want them to feel warm around the heart. That’s what I’m hoping to get at the premiere on Saturday.”
The Bosnian was aware that at least 6000 people had climbed Everest before him – and so he wasn’t attempting an unheard of feat. Instead, he was trying to show “the human side” of his adventure.
When he arrived in Nepal, Cvitanušić was immediately struck by the kindness of the local people. There was none of the aggression and narcissism found in so many western societies. In Bosnia, the film is called ‘Everyone has their own Everest’ although the English title is The Deepest Summit.
How did Cvitanušić feel when he successfully reached the peak? “Honestly, I didn’t feel any triumph. I just felt very, very dispensable…” He points out that the mountains have been there for millions of years, far longer than humans have existed.
Cvitanušić has had an eventful life. In the late 1980s, he was on the verge of becoming a professional basketball player but decided to “take another direction.” He was in Sarajevo during the four years of the siege, serving in the army. Once the Balkan war was over, he embraced endurance sports. He has run the six major marathons: Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York City and Tokyo (in which he competed earlier this year). He has also shivered and sweated his way through the Norseman triathlon, one of the most gruelling events imaginable. “I like to suffer” he jokes. “It starts in a super-cold fjord. You jump from the ferry. It’s crazy…”
This was all good preparation for Everest. Before taking on the Himalayas, Cvitanušić had climbed in Europe and South America. He sold his car to finance his expeditions (not a move that endeared him to his family). He eventually found sponsors.
Cvitanušić began his Everest climb in the spring of this year. The film has three cinematographers on the credits, himself, Faris Bajri and Mujkić, but he was the only one who actually climbed the mountain. He was helped up by a Sherpa friend who also assisted in the shooting of the doc.
It was an exhausting journey. At high altitude, it’s easy to become depressed, tired and to lose your enthusiasm. You have to wait for a “weather window” when it is safe to attempt to reach the summit. He was there during one of the deadliest seasons in the history of Everest during which 17 people died on the mountain. Nonetheless, his spirit never wavered.
Over 700 people are expected at the premiere this weekend. What will happen to the film afterwards? “I don’t know,” Cvitanušić admits. He has only just finished it, and isn’t sure which other festivals it will play at or when it will be broadcast on Al-Jazeera.
Now, the athlete turned filmmaker will be returning to endurance sports. “I am not going to win the gold medal at the Olympics. I am too old for that,” he says. But he can still give a good account of himself on the Ironman circuit. He has a triathlon in Portugal next month. In 2023 alone, he has conquered Everest, run the Tokyo Marathon, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with a group of friends – and he still has other events in the diary. “It’s a way of life…but my final goal is just to be healthy and happy.”
When British climbers like George Mallory were trying to climb Everest a century ago, many were hoping to exorcise traumatic memories of the First World War. Was Cvitanušić driven to his feats of endurance by what he experienced in the Balkan conflict in the 1990s?
“I spent four years in Sarajevo under siege and I was actually a soldier. I have experience from the bloody trench…if you survive the war, and I survived, you can take it as an opportunity to reset your life values. During the war, Sarajevo was under siege. We didn’t have water, electricity, heating. That can help you become grateful for simple things,” he reflects. “It is similar also in the mountains. You are consciously going up there to suffer. If I want to have a coffee in camp C3, it takes about 45 minutes to melt some ice to make the coffee. When you get back to the valley, you just play the waiter for a beautiful, nice espresso.”
This is Cvitanušić’s way of explaining that he takes nothing for granted and savours everyday experiences. “And what I am proud of is that I never let ethnic hatred to get to my heart. War is a terrible thing…I am very grateful to survive and I have so many friends on all sides, Muslims, Bosnians, Serbs. I am really proud of that fact.”
