This documentary comes from Scottish director Kevin Macdonald, who won an Oscar for his ambitious One Day In September, a film about the terrorist attacks on the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.

He's done it again. True, he had the story to work with, but Macdonald somehow turns the facts and the people into major players in a film even an action feature producer would be proud of.

Human endurance never fails to amaze. This is a story about courage and perseverance in the most horrendous and unimaginable circumstances.

The films tells of a climb which two young English guys, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates took in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. The two young, strong and ambitious mountaineers successfully scaled the hitherto unclimbed west face of Siula Grande, a remote and treacherous 21,000ft peak.

But it was on the descent that the major problems began.

A broken leg, a cut rope, a 150 foot fall and days with altitude sickness and dehydration can only really scratch the surface of those few days in hell.

Their heroism is staggering in the face of such low survival odds.

Simpson and Yates returned to the Siula Grande together for the first time to retell their story for the camera.

Macdonald depicts the mountains as truly beautiful but terrifying in his unique style. The result is stunning, breathtaking and utterly captivating.

Natalie Stone