Skywalkers: A Love Story – Movie Review (2024)

Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus are Russians who were both fascinated by the idea of ​​”rooftoping,” an international trend reminiscent of the flagpole sitters of the 1920s, only hundreds of meters higher, with an infinitely larger audience, and immeasurably more dangerous. Unlike George Leigh Mallory’s legendary comment when asked why he wanted to climb the then-unclimbed Mount Everest, “because it’s there,” rooftoppers want to climb to the top of skyscrapers to be seen.

It begins with brief scenes from 2019 in which Nikolau and Beerkus prepare to climb to the top of one of the world’s tallest buildings: the then-nearly completed, 2,227-foot Merdeka 118 in Malaysia, which will soon be featured in an MCU film (“Thunderbolts”). We then learn about the couple’s backstory before they met and the literal and romantic ups and downs of their relationship.

Nikolau grew up in a circus family. She loved watching her parents perform on a flying trapeze. But her father left her for another woman and her mother never recovered. Nikolau was raised by her grandmother and promised herself that she would never depend on anyone again. But she had trouble deciding on a direction for her life until she saw the “roofers” on Instagram. They were all men. She knew what she was made for. “Seeing their passion and freedom was magical. They take crazy risks to feel their potential… I knew I had found my act. This is my trapeze.”

She wanted to outdo the men by climbing higher and more dangerous structures, and she wanted to perform for her social media audience in flashy costumes (high heels!) and in gymnastic poses that required supreme balance and flexibility. Now might be a good time to point out that Nikolau is exceptionally handsome.

Beerkus loved the exhilaration of the climb. He tells us the higher he climbed, the more he could breathe. He had the most Instagram followers in Russia. And it was on Instagram that he first saw Nikolau. He was fascinated by her posts and invited her to join him on a sponsored trip to China to climb the world’s highest construction site. They met for the first time on the way. And as soon as the pictures are online, Nikolau gets hundreds of thousands of new followers and some sponsorship offers. What could be a better path to true love?