Matthew Turner | On 19, Jul 2024

Director: Jeff Zimbalist
Cast: Vanya Beerkus, Angela Nikolau
Certificate: 18

The title suggests yet another Star Wars sci-fi/fantasy spin-off, but this documentary about a pair of “rooftoppers” (daredevil climbers) delivers terrifying thrills that are all too real, especially if you’re even remotely afraid of heights. Directed by former rooftopper Jeff Zimbalist, Skywalkers: A Love Story is a vertiginous swirl of love, trust, courage, art, hunger for fame and borderline insanity.

The film centres on Angela Nikolau and Vanya Beerkus. We’re first introduced to them as they run into trouble during their attempt to scale a building, and end up having to hide from construction workers for 30 hours. With Vanya’s voiceover noting that this was the climb that was supposed to bring them together again, the story then flashes back to reveal their backstories, how they met and the course of their relationship up until this point.

The film makes it clear that rooftopping isn’t just about scaling tall buildings – more accurately, it’s climbing to obscenely scary heights without any safety equipment, and then taking photographs of yourself, which are posted to social media. To that end, rooftopping was a very male-dominated activity in Russia, so it’s intriguing to learn that Angela got herself noticed by introducing an element of artistry – she describes herself as “an extreme model” – and doing chilled out gymnastic poses in terrifying spaces.

The rest of Angela’s story is equally fascinating. The fact that her parents were trapeze artists gives real insight into her chosen profession, as well as effectively mirroring her future relationship. As for Vanya, he initially sees climbing as pure escapism, a way to clear his head by getting high above the city, until Angela opens his eyes to seeing what they do as a form of art.

Although it’s never entirely clear at what point Zimbalist came on board as director, his cameras are nonetheless there for Angela and Vanya’s first meeting, when a sponsorship client asks them to collaborate on a climb. Thereafter, they become a couple both romantically and professionally, something that adds an unexpected note for Vanya, as he remarks in a TV interview that – although he was never concerned for his own safety – he now finds himself worrying about Angela during climbs.

Zimbalist packs the film with dizzying footage from the couple’s previous high risk endeavours, shot with a combination of mounted cameras, drones, and selfie sticks. Just watching a POV shot of Angela’s feet walking along a thin wall, a perilous drop on either side, is utterly terrifying, and you’ll be hard pressed to remember to breathe.

However, all love stories have their ups and downs, and the same is true here, as the combination of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine (which led to their social media platforms being restricted) seriously impacts their income. This, in turn, drives Angela to want to take bigger and bigger risks, and she begins to feel that Vanya is holding her back.

That brings us to where the film began, with their plan to be the first rooftoppers to scale the 118-storey Merdeka 118 (and its 150 foot spire) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As with the 2008 documentary Man on Wire (about Philippe Petit’s high-wire walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center), Zimbalist shoots and edits these sequences like a heist thriller, as Angela and Vanya spend weeks casing the venue and meticulously planning their route through and up the building before embarking on their mission.

Their plan, should they make it to the top of the spire in the first place, is simultaneously achingly romantic and completely insane. They will perform a gymnastic lift (think Strictly) on a thin piece of scaffolding that they will place across the width of the edges of the spire. This brings the issue of trust within a relationship into sharp focus, and teases us by showing them practice the lift repeatedly beforehand, never quite getting the hang of it, even when on the ground.

There are some admittedly dodgy elements about the film – the less said about the fact that they make money by selling NFTs of their photos, the better, for example, plus it’s clear there’s a degree of manipulation in the storytelling, in terms of the structure and editing. Similarly, it does rather glamorise an incredibly dangerous activity – there’s a sobering moment when Angela learns that all her former rooftopping crew have died, although it’s swiftly glossed over – and you can’t help feel that they could have shouted “Kids, don’t try this at home!” a little louder.

That said, it’s impossible not to be swept up in the central romance, and the images that Angela and Vanya create together are as undeniably beautiful as they are startling.

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