A Big Wall Story 🇲🇬 Anna Hazelnutt & Matilda Söderlund

A partnership film first and a climbing film second, and it knows the difference. Anna Hazelnutt and Matilda Söderlund travel to Madagascar's Tsaranoro massif to climb a remote big wall, six months after meeting in Las Vegas. Hazelnutt edits and narrates, William Hamilton flies the drone, and the film premiered at No Man's Land.

This is for people interested in the interpersonal side of big wall travel: team decisions, hauling, and managing a remote environment with someone you barely know. It is also a good entry point for climbers who find most big wall films too technical. Skip it if you need a route name and a grade. The film never gives either, and that is a real omission for a big wall on a massif with routes as famous as Tough Enough.

What works is the narration. Hazelnutt is a good talker and the film sounds like a person rather than a brand, even with Rab in the credits. The Honnold Foundation context for Madagascar is a thoughtful addition. What it gets wrong is the climbing. Twenty-four minutes and the wall stays vague.

Tough Enough: Big Wall Climbing in Madagascar is the same massif, a named 8b+ route and a first free ascent, in French. That is the climbing film. This is the friendship film. I wish they were the same film.