This film was intended to be a follow up to a situation that had occurred the year prior in Everest, when there was a near riot by the Sherpas directed at climbers, due, we're told, to an increasing feeling among the Sherpa community that their skills and incredibly dangerous work was taken for granted by the climbers, the commercial companies and their government. Poorly paid, poorly insured, regularly dying - and starting to resent this. Sherpas aren't just mountaineers, they're the local people of the area, their wives, their families, their communities, desperately poor and highly reliant on foreign money from the ever increasing number of mountaineers, from which the Nepalese government take a 30% royalty, amounting to $180 million yet provide the communities with so little . This Australian documentary wanted to see what was happening and why the Sherpas might be so angry and "rebelling" after this high altitude fracas. What happened next gave the viewer an answer the film makers will never have expected. Totally tragically 16 Sherpas were killed by an ice fall in the most dangerous part of the climb, the negotiation of the Khumu Ice fall, which the climbers do twice but the Sherpas perhaps twenty times in supplying the camps. The surviving Sherpas became, naturally, very distressed, and following some very emotional meetings, decided to call off the rest of the season, at great person financial cost to themselves and their communities, but preserving their pride and respect for themselves and those that had died. But Russell Bryce's reaction was so incredibly insensitive, patronising certainly, but much worse than patronising, truly lacking humanity and compassion. HIs major concern appeared to be his commercial operation, blaming all the problems on a few young troublemakers who didn't know any better than to misbehave. This was echoed by the other foreigners, the climbers and the commercial operators, one even going to describe the angry Sherpas as "terrorists". Any Westerner, and certainly any New Zealander (Russell is one), with any sense of humanity or humility watching this documentary, the breathtaking scenery, and the literally breathtaking work of the Sherpas, would come away feeling more than a little ashamed of the attitudes that so many of our fellow Western travellers displayed in this film. Yet Russell Bryce has operated his company for twenty years; over that time he must surely have developed some sort of humane rapport with the Sherpas he employs? But it make one wonder, indeed, was that "rapport" just that of master and servant, and has he still not awoken to the fact he has made his money out of a severe imbalance in power, race and culture, that I thought might have been a bit more diluted since the long past days of the Raj, but in which view I would seem to be seriously mistaken.

A stunningly shot and emotionally engaging Australian backed documentary, the BAFTA nominated Sherpa as directed by filmmaker to watch Jennifer Peedom and her willing crew is one of the years must see docos as well as must see films perse thanks to its well-constructed looked at both the almost indescribable appeal of climbing the world's most famous mountain Everest and the oft-unsung heroes of the successful climbs, the Sherpas.

Focusing her attention on Phurba Tashi Sherpa who at the time of filming this documentary had successfully climbed to the Everest peak over 20 times, Peedom captures some otherworldly and magnificent images of a landscape filled with beauty, allurement and potential death and backed by the ever good musical ruminations of acclaimed Animal Kingdom and The Rover scorer Antony Partos, Sherpa has a polish and sheen not often found in home-grown documentaries or documentaries of any heritage at that matter and from the film's opening minutes through to its last important stanza Sherpa will gripe the viewer and not let go.

Becoming one of those film crews that were there at the right place and at the right time, Sherpa's initial focus shifts as the film draws on and tragedy strikes the mountain, a tragedy that in many ways reshaped the way business was done and is to be done on the mountain that draws so many people to it each year often at exorbitant prices.

Sherpa's who have long been the smiling and gracious whipping boys to Everest's various tourists and wannabe heroes, are here given airtime from both the new to the old (an interesting aspect to the film is the look back at Sherpa Tenzing Norgay) and Peedom and her team shine a light on these often fearless climbers and guides that would risk their lives dozens of times per season to make sure those that have paid to have their experience are given every chance conceivable to make the trek successfully, even if some of the Sherpas here aren't overly affable.

Hot off the heels of the good if not great Everest feature from last year, Sherpa is an outstanding documentary that is one of the highlights of Australia's recent output in the medium that includes the must see All This Mayhem and That Sugar Film and Peedom has once again marked herself down as a real talent to watch, while those adventurers looking for an insightful look at one of the world's natural wonders owe it to themselves to watch this eye opening film experience.

4 ½ yaks out of 5

On the one hand, we have the overprivileged, looking to comfortably conquer Everest and willing to pay vast sums of money to goodness knows who, we learn of the devastation of their not being able to complete their climb and how, as such, a disaster is an inconvenience. On the other hand we have the local Sherpas looking to negotiate fairer conditions of work for their community, after decades of struggle and loss of life.

The comments made about the "mob" of Sherpas and how they might be dealt with through their "owners" showed such a old-fashioned spirit of command that we are left wishing these climbers had continued their journey, on their own, each carrying their necessities for themselves.