The ‘Skywalkers’ Who Fell in Love While Risking Death ‘Rooftopping’

PARK CITY, Utah—If Free Solo and Man on Wire made you queasy, then prepare to have your stomach churn, your heart race and your palms go sweaty with Skywalkers: A Love Story, writer/director Jeff Zimbalist’s breathtaking and nerve-wracking documentary about two daredevils whose fondness for pushing themselves—and their death-defying vocation—to the absolute limit winds up bringing them together. A vertiginous non-fiction film that demands the biggest screen possible, it’s a thriller, a heist caper, and a surprisingly moving romance all in one, and it seems destined to be one of the breakout hits of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Skywalkers: A Love Story concerns “rooftopping,” the modern practice of ascending to urban structures’ apexes without the use of harnesses, complicated gear or safety nets. Think of it as a cross between free solo climbing and parkour, with all the insane hazards such a hobby naturally entails. Zimbalist’s film concerns two expert Russian practitioners of this pastime, Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, she the daughter of circus performers and he a risk-taker with a technician’s gift for making it to the tops of famous international skyscrapers, stadiums, and churches. In both cases, they don’t just triumphantly execute their feats—they record them with GoPro cameras affixed to their heads for you-are-there views of their endeavors, as well as drones for gorgeous panoramic photographs and videos of them standing high above civilization. Such images are tailor-made for social media, and Angela and Ivan quickly became celebrities in their out-there subculture—and, thus, aware of each other’s achievements.

Given that it requires tremendous physical skill and, in Angela’s case, often concludes with stylish fashion model-esque posing and dexterous acrobatics, “rooftopping” comes across as a mixture of art and sport. Regardless of labels, though, it’s terrifying to see in action, and courtesy of footage shot by Angela and Ivan (as well as its own original material), Skywalkers: A Love Story affords an endless supply of harrowing first-person perspectives as the two scale building exteriors, scaffolding, cranes, and spires. The film puts you right in the thick of the madness from the get-go and never lets up, boasting countless sequences from Angela and Ivan’s POVs as they move step-by-step up tiny constricting walkways, pull each other up over outcroppings, and sit on stratospheric ledges, their legs dangling in the midday breeze with nothing below except distant streets and their vehicles and pedestrians.

Read more at The Daily Beast.