Montanha da Morte: O Incidente na Passagem Dyatlov

No one knows for sure what actually happened to the trekkers but the most plausible and likely theories are the ones that are dramatised here and presented as the conclusion in the final episode.

The series cleverly uses two styles to tell its story. The hike is shot in black and white and the subsequent investigation is filmed in colour. Flashbacks and backgrounds of the characters are also shot in colour.

The back stories of the older characters mainly concern the war and are completely fictionalised to impart a sense of creepy horror to the series. The indigenous people, the Mansi, are also portrayed as shamanistic communers with nature whose superstitions mesh with the account but are not the cause of the tragedy.

There are hints and suggestions of darker political and military forces at work - this is now in the public domain - which unfortunately led to a rash of conspiracy theories. However, the conclusion reached by the initial and the subsequent investigations seems to be sound and that's the line taken by this programme.

There is enough information made public for the programme makers to have been able to reconstruct most of the hike and the investigation. The conversations are fictional, of course, and the reconstruction of the final hours has, of necessity, to be speculative.

It's a worthy series to watch. The director managed to convey the flavour of the Communist times with élan and accuracy. I didn't quite binge watch, but I had seen all eight episodes within three days. I'm glad I saw this.

This is a true event which has fascinated me for years as it's so bizarre. This series encompasses a lot of the various theories as to how these hikers died. There are some supernatural elements thrown in as well. What I loved about this series was the production values. Because this event occurred in 1959 in the Ural Mountains, everything appears to be authentic to the period. The flash backs to fighting the Nazi's were also fantastic & would have made a great series in itself. The acting is great. A hidden gem.

Told in flashbacks, the series unfolds an intriguing narrative that poses interesting existential questions and dissects such canonized Russian subjects as WWII very boldly. It's also an effective, albeit slow-burning horror story, gorgeously filmed, intelligenty written and well acted. If you like eerie mountains, Soviet nostalgia and Nazi mysticism (stupenduous Wewelsburg castle!) , go for it.

First of all it's worth mentioning that it's a story based on real events, however the ending of the story is speculative, so the authors try to fit all possible versions of what happened to the group into a working narrative. The filmmakers did a twist with this show, the story is told in two parts happening simultaneously, so you have half of the episodes as a criminal investigation show and the other half as an adventure/thriller. The thriller part is presented in black and white simulating the style of the old soviet Cinema, while the investigation/crime part is coloured. The acting is decent, it reflects the era very well and there are a lot of unexpected plot twits on the way, overall not a bad show at all ...

Fantastic cinematography, great casting line-up, gorgeous creative direction, drama, and scenario. A breakthrough masterpiece for contemporary Russian cinema.