Pèlèrinage Interdit / Forbidden Pilgrimage

A research in the mind and memories of a forgotten woman, who tried everything not to be forgotten.

a creative documentary by Ellen Vermeulen.

“Il y a longtemps que je sais que la montagne est une femme. Il y a entre elles des affinités certaines: beauté, mystère, danger, caprice, variété d’humeur et de caractère.”

Synopsis

By leaving her footprints on the virgin mountain Déodakni in 1952, Marie-Louise Chapelle became the first woman ever to reach a top in the Himalayas.
However, few days before her glorious moment, she was refused to climb another mountain, the Chaukhamba. She was refused because she was a woman. And if a woman can reach a top, the mountain is considered to be just a hill. That was the general belief back in 1952.

The traces of Marie-Louise have disappeared under a pack of fresh snow. The memories she left, in the form of a rich archive, are covered under a thick layer of dust, a layer of oblivion and malignity.
The personal price she had to pay for her brief moment of glory was huge.

This director, a distant family member, dusts off her memories, and follows her track to the top of the Déodakni. From her “room of memories” in the home of rest where she died at the age of 95, Marie-Louise looks back on the best time of her life. She takes us back on her trip, her ‘Pèlerinage Interdit’, her forbidden pilgrimage.