In its statement awarding the prize for Best Mountaineering Film, the jury of the festival in Kraków—chaired by the renowned Polish director (and one of the finest high-altitude cinematographers), Dariusz Zaluski—noted:

“A film in which the story of the legendary Bulgarian expedition along Everest’s West Ridge was completely rewritten due to the political situation in the country at the time. The main protagonists can finally speak without the constraints of communism and offer us a new, compelling truth.”