SKYWALKERS: A LOVE STORY – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

Any relationship involves trust—a metaphor that the documentary Skywalkers: A Love Story makes dizzyingly literal. Following two daredevils who scale rooftops and spires around the world, the film boasts breathtaking views and vertigo-inducing point-of-view shots, yet holds its subjects at arm’s length.

What possesses someone to want to touch the sky? Skywalkers teases this question with an enigmatic and attractive Russian couple who meet after one-upping each other on Instagram with posts of their feats on high. ‘Rooftoppers’ Angela Nikolau and Ivan “Vanya” Beerkus acquire more followers and sponsorships together than apart, with viewers enthralled by their snuggles as they perch on tiny construction platforms or Nikolau’s lithe, acrobatic poses.

The imagery, much of it thanks to the couple’s drone shots and precision, is indeed stunning, circling Nikolau as she backbends above a magnificent skyline or leaps in a gauzy dress above the horizon. But while it also offers a peek at their lives on the ground, viewers might wish the film had probed deeper into what makes them tick.

Writer-director Jeff Zimbalist (How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer) and co-director Maria Bukhonina, also a producer here, frame the story around the couple’s plans in December 2022 to climb Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The second-tallest building and structure in the world, the skyscraper is the tallest building in Southeast Asia at 2,227 feet.

Toting four GoPro cameras and spare batteries, along with other gear, plus disguises and a wardrobe change for the final shots, the couple took advantage of local World Cup fever to sneak into the site, still under construction at the time. They wound up hiding inside for about thirty hours to avoid construction crews and security, risking imprisonment for trespassing.

The film explores some tension between the two on other climbs around the world through their GoPro footage. As Beerkus points out handholds and checks on Nikolau, he can’t help but grate on her independent nerves. Each realizing they have to trust each other as well as their partner’s judgment provides a thread of dramatic tension.

The two conceive of the Merdeka stunt after the COVID-19 pandemic wipes out their travel sponsorships. While Beerkus says he feels like their posts have become more artistic since he and Nikolau got together, there’s more Evel Knievel stunt spirit here than Michelangelo.

There’s no fault in that, although the film does little to examine what drives them beyond self-promotion and Instagram feeds. It’s tough not to compare it to James Marsh’s 2008 Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire, which explored tightrope walker Philippe Petit’s 1974 illegal performance between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Paced and edited with the ticking-clock flair of a heist, that film included a variety of sources and archive footage beyond Petit, who’s articulate and awe-inspiring, even if more grounded folks would consider his actions bonkers.

Rooftopping is illegal and dangerous; the film comes with a disclaimer and includes brief footage of two people falling to death, along with statistics about others. Skywalkers comes closest to understanding its mindset through Nikolau, whose parents were circus performers. Charming archive footage shows her toddling on the net for trapeze artists. Her grandmother recounts how her mother wrestled snakes and kept a wolf in the bathroom.

Inspired by vintage photos of women acrobats on rooftops, Nikolau wants to do what the guys can do, exhibiting her own balance, strength, and style. She says she’s determined not to live a plain, boring life.

Beerkus is more mysterious, revealing nothing about his background beyond a handful of calls with his parents. They offer to set him up with an office job. Nikolau dryly notes she doesn’t have such a safety net.

Cinematographer Renato Borrayo Serrano captures their casual and private moments in medium shots and closeups, offering intimacy lost in the grand scale of the couple’s top-of-the-world wide shots. At an hour and forty minutes, Skywalkers hits a slow patch during the couple’s training and prep for Merdeka, but there’s an affecting epiphany when Nikolau encounters a Ukrainian circus troupe, seeing her childhood and her relationship in a new light.

Not for viewers with vertigo, Skywalkers: A Love Story is best appreciated as a travelogue rather than as a high-flying romance, with a few pointed observations and sweet moments, such as when Nikolau says to Beerkus, “I felt so safe in your hands.”