Private Project

Inverse Everest

Until 2017 (when Vheryovkina Cave became a bit deeper) the deepest cave on Earth was the Krubera-Voronya Cave in the Caucasus Mountains. Professional photographs of this natural wonder were taken for the first time in 2016 by four Hungarian spelunkers. The film follows from the team’s one month stay in Abkhazia, and of course their journey to 2080 meters down into the earth. Get a glimpse into the everyday life of the Surface Research Camp, the careful preparations, descents down endless shafts, waterfalls, and water-filled passages to one of the world's deepest natural landmark, the Game Over Hall.

  • Balazs Lerner
    Director
    Budapest Inferno, Underwater Wilderness: Sudan
  • Gergely Balazs
    Director
    Budapest Inferno, Operation Mayfly
  • Zsolt Marcell Toth
    Producer
    Budapest Inferno, Operation Mayfly
  • Balazs Lerner
    Writer
  • Lerner Balazs
    Writer
  • Peter Rusko
    Music
    Budapest Inferno, Underwater Wilderness: Sudan
  • Marton Szekely
    Music
    Budapest Inferno, Underwater Wilderness: Sudan
  • Peter Adamko
    Camera
  • Zsolt Marcell Toth
    Camera
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    50 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    October 31, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    25,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Hungary
  • Country of Filming:
    Abkhazia, Georgia, Hungary
  • Language:
    English, Hungarian, Russian
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Balazs Lerner, Gergely Balazs

Balázs Lerner is an anthropologist and storyteller. After studying biology, archeology and anthropology he worked for several NGOs in Central Europe and in Africa. He authored several books on Africa, history and religions. He is currently working as a scientific editor for SPEKTRUM TV, a Hungarian documentary/infotainment TV channel. As an enthusiastic scuba diver he worked on underwater films in Sudan and Mexico but he mostly enjoys cave diving under his hometown, Budapest.

Gergely Balázs is an evolutionary biologist and award winning filmmaker with a strong interest in cave fauna. His scientific work focuses the phylogenetic research of cave crustaceans and the analysis of vision and orientation of cave dwelling animals. As a professional cave diver he is involved in scientific and exploratory work from Bosnia-Herzegovina to the Yucatan Peninsula. With a strong interest in science communication, in the last decade Gergely tried all sorts of positions in the film industry ranging from being a field assistant to directing feature documentaries.

Since 2013 Gergely Balázs and Balázs Lerner has been working together as writers, directors and editors of informational and campaign videos, scientific video abstracts and nature documentaries. The features they worked on include:

Operation Mayfly (2016)
Budapest Inferno (2017)
Underwater Wilderness: Sudan (2017)
The Adventurous Life of the Diving Bell Spider (2018)
Inverse Everest (2019)

Their films won dozens of international awards, and are regularly screened at the largest wildlife festivals like International Wildlife Film Festival in Missuola, Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in New York, or Naturvision in Ludwigsburg, Germany.

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