A documentary film about Piotr “Mad” Korczak, a legendary climber now entering the twilight of his career, is amongst the winners at the 59th Trento Film Festival in Italy.

Declaration of Immortality is the work of Marcin Koszalka, a noted documentary film-maker and the chief cinematographer on The Reverse, one of the outstanding success stories in Polish cinema over recent years.

The jurors in Trento awarded the work a coveted “Silver Gentian” for artistic and technical brilliance, citing Koszalka's “innovative method of using different layers of cinematic language to create an unsettling portrait,” revealing “the loneliness of a professional climber's struggle against ageing and his own mortality.”

The Trento Film Festival was founded in 1952, focusing on exploration, mountaineering and the culture of highland regions.

The overall winner this year was Summer Pasture, which follows a family of Tibetan nomads as captured by American film-makers Lynn True and Nelson Walker.

Film buffs in Poland can catch Declaration of Immortality at the forthcoming 51st Krakow Film Festival, which kicks off on 23 May. (nh)