What was your most exciting first date? In 2016, two young Russians known for their dangerous “rooftopping” adventures — where they illegally climbed high landmarks like La Sagrada Familia and the Eiffel Tower — skipped the usual date and instead climbed China’s tallest incomplete skyscraper, the 600-meter-high Goldin Finance 117.
At the time, Ivan Beerkus invited Angela Nikolau, one of the few women in the rooftopping community, to join him to create social media posts. They didn't know it would be the start of a long romantic and creative partnership. They have traveled thousands of miles and climbed many high places together since then.
Eight years later, the documentary film “Skywalkers: A Love Story” shows their unique romance through hundreds of hours of footage. Directed by Jeff Zimbalist, who has rooftopping experience himself, “Skywalkers” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and is now on Netflix. The film follows the couple as they take on tougher challenges and manage their relationship.
“Skywalkers” combines the couple’s own footage with the film crew’s original footage. Rooftopping is risky, both because it's dangerous and because it's illegal. As this urban “sport” becomes more popular on social media, several deaths have occurred.
For “Skywalkers,” the film crew followed Beerkus and Nikolau but prioritized safety. Zimbalist stressed the importance of the team’s safety measures to avoid any danger or distractions.
“We told Ivan and Angela, ‘Please, don’t do anything extra dangerous,’” Zimbalist said. “For us, this movie isn’t about whether you succeed at a climb; it’s about whether you trust each other.”
Nikolau, the daughter of circus performers, says in the film that pushing her limits is something she learned from childhood. She trained as a gymnast and made acrobatics her specialty in rooftopping. Despite this, Nikolau says she is afraid of heights and must constantly face this fear to continue her work.
“The fear never really went away; I just got better at facing it,” she explains in one clip.
For Beerkus, who climbed buildings alone in Moscow for years, rooftopping brings mental clarity.
“The higher I went, the easier it was to breathe,” he says, remembering his early climbs. “This extreme life and expanded state of mind are essential for me.”
Zimbalist acknowledges the dangers of rooftopping and says his film is not about “defending what they do against critics.” He hopes that “Skywalkers,” in addition to its message about love and trust, shows the hard work and planning behind the rooftoppers’ social media posts.
“With any dangerous activity, social media often hides the difficulty,” he said. “Telling the story behind it helps show how challenging and dangerous these things are.”
Although the makers of “Skywalkers” don’t want you to climb skyscrapers, their film encourages us to dare and say “yes” to the things that scare us the most.
From CNN (edited)
