Nima Temba Sherpa
 

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Logline
Sherpa’s, the guides of the Sherpa people have assisted many western mountaineers to climb the highest summits of the Himalayas. Who are these silent people and what is their background? Why do they risk their life on mountains they never would climb without western clients?      
In this documentary film of director Margriet Jansen we follow Nima Temba Sherpa during the accession of the 8200 meter Cho Oyu summit. Nima tells his story and gives us a good view behind the scenes of his Sherpa life.      

 
The documentary is produced exactly 50 years after the first successful ascension of the Mount Everest by Edmond Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.
The media have an eye only for the western heroes. The Sherpa that makes these acts of heroism come true is never in the spotlight. However, from the very beginning of mountaineering it is thanks to the Sherpa that these summits have been reached successfully.  

In the film Nima Temba Sherpa the Sherpa is the hero; a new perspective for an well known item. It will make the audience curious: what is the drive, the motive for a Sherpa for climbing, how is his daily live and what does the expedition work bring to him? These are key questions for the film.      
The senior Sirdar (the Sherpa-leader) earns a decent fee but he has to take enormous risks to stay in charge. In fact he has no choice. The gap between East and West becomes obvious.
The members of the expedition, paying clients for the way up run by guides, risk their lives as well. But if they survive they are the heroes. For the rest of their life they can tell the whole world how successful they were and how they got beyond their own borders and limits.
The Sherpa goes back to his family and has to take another climb three months later.
What does this mean for his prospects, is there anything left to overcome?      
We follow the climbing of one of the highest Himalayan summits, the Cho Oyu. We look at it through Nima Temba’s eyes; against the background of his biography, of the cultural and daily life in Kathmandu and of his native soil in the valley of Rolwaling.


Nima Temba Sherpa  
Duration: 52 minutes  
Camera: Bert Oosterveld, Margriet Jansen, Lakpa Sherpa en Tore Rasmussen   Director/producer: Margriet Jansen  
Co-producer: Metropolisfilm Utrecht