Tenzing puts Everest hero at centre as Zurich opener
Tenzing, the Apple Original film about Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary's first summit of Mount Everest, is opening the Zurich Film Festival.
The film is directed by Jennifer Peedom, according to Variety. It tells the true story of the 1953 climb that put two men on top of the world's highest mountain for the first time.
Genden Phuntsok stars as Norgay. Tom Hiddleston plays Hillary, with Willem Dafoe as expedition leader Colonel John Hunt. Thinley Lhamo and Caitríona Balfe also appear in the cast.
Peedom said the ambition was to restore Norgay's subjectivity and allow him to be the protagonist of his own life, not a supporting character. It is a direct answer to decades in which Hillary's name often came first in shorthand retellings.
That retelling has deep roots. Norgay first tried to join an Everest expedition in 1933 and first climbed on the mountain in 1935 as a porter. By 1953, he was one of the most experienced Everest mountaineers in the world.
Peedom told Variety that Norgay had more Everest experience than anyone else on the 1953 expedition. The film leans into that history rather than treating him as a newcomer to the mountain.
Casting followed the same idea. Peedom said Phuntsok grew up on the Tibetan Plateau, bringing lived experience of high-altitude life to the role. He leads a production that moves between Himalayan communities and the British-led expedition machine.
Peedom knows this ground. She previously directed the short The Sherpas' Burden and the feature documentary Sherpa, about high-altitude workers on Everest. Tenzing is her move from documentary into drama, but on familiar terrain.
The festival run is already under way. A first-look clip featuring Peedom, Phuntsok and Hiddleston was released around the Telluride Film Festival, and Apple celebrated the premiere of Tenzing at the Toronto International Film Festival, according to Apple. Zurich now gives it a European festival opening.
From there it heads for cinemas. Tenzing will play in select theatres starting Oct 9, its trailer confirms, with Apple describing it as based on true events chronicling the little-known story of Norgay, a gifted Himalayan climber.
What makes this stand out is the shift in viewpoint. Festival openers often chase scale. Here the scale is Everest itself, but the story stays close to the man who had spent twenty years trying to reach its summit.
