We’ve seen a few documentaries in recent years about drug addiction, not to mention the traumas behind it and the attempts made to escape it, both at the cinema and on TV. But Hungarian director Ádám Miklós’ documentary Beyond Rock Bottom offers up an unprecedented perspective on this highly sensitive subject, which would usually involve digging into people’s private lives and stripping them bare in front of the cameras. As the director, screenwriter, director of photography and editor of this movie, Miklós homes in on a recovery method favoured by a treatment centre in Budapest called the Megálló, which is run by people with former drug addictions who use innovative methods to overcome dependency. In this case, it’s rock climbing. And the struggle to break free from drugs, with all the effort it requires and the constant danger of relapse that comes with it, takes a form which is more concrete and tangible than ever in this instance: climbing up walls ten metres high.

Presented in a world premiere at the most recent Warsaw Festival (awarded a Special Mention in the Documentary Competition) and screened these past few days in competition in the 9th Riviera International Film Festival in Sestri Levante, Beyond Rock Bottom focuses on two young patients in the treatment centre - high-school student Boróka and 28-year-old Szilveszter - and follows them for a year, counting along with them how many days it’s been since their last hit. We’re surprised by how normal this young woman and man are: they have clean faces, a home, dreams… But Boróka grew up in a dysfunctional family and got high on ecstasy every day for nine months until she passed out, while Szilveszter started taking drugs because he was in conflict with his father on account of the former being gay and now wants to get clean “rather than die”.

It might sound trivial, but what emerges most powerfully out of this story about young people whose lives are devastated by drugs, often unbeknownst to friends and family, but who are determined to get back on track, though not without great difficulty, is their attachment to life and their desire to fully savour its scents, tastes and emotions (“I feel like I cease to exist when I take drugs”, Boróka explains, “there’s a whole world outside, but inside there’s nothing”). Accepting themselves is like scaling a mountain. In fact, the most emotional scenes are the ones where we see our protagonists fighting with all their strength to reach the tops of these walls. They tremble (“I’ve never been so scared in my life”, Szilveszter admits), they stop, they fall, they cry, and then they start again. It turns out that, when you climb, your withdrawal symptoms disappear. The most important thing is to never give up. And the audience can only cheer on Boróka and Szilveszter, and all those who keep on getting up again.

Beyond Rock Bottom was produced by Arrabona Studio - co-founded by Ádám Miklós himself - alongside FocusFox Studio, with the support of the Hungarian National Film Institute’s Incubator Programme, which is also handling world sales.