It’s not every day a documentary arrives that makes you want to pack a backpack, run barefoot across hills, and never return to your modern city life. But ‘To Hold a Mountain’, directed by Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić, has that uncanny effect.
From the very first frame, we meet Mileva “Gara” Jovanović, who introduces herself not with a resume or a philosophy but with pride. “I’m the daughter of Sinjajevina.” Those words hint at a life so intertwined with the land it feels like the mountain itself is breathing through her.
Set in remote Montenegro highlands, ‘To Hold a Mountain’ is less a political documentary than deeply personal saga. It unfurls over seven years of filming, chronicling Gara’s life and coming-of-age of her teenage daughter, Nada Stanišić.
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But don’t mistake the film’s personal focus for a lack of stakes. Theirs is a quiet fight against forces as imposing as NATO military ambitions, as insidious as patriarchal violence, and as relentless as time itself.
By the time the world premiere hit the 2026 Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Documentary Competition, audiences were already captivated.
Mountains, memory, maternal threads
At the heart of the film is a story of family that is both tender and tragic. Nada’s mother, Mika, was brutally killed when Nada was very young, leaving the child in the care of her aunt, Gara. The tragedy could have broken them both, but Tutorov and Glomazić focus not on despair but on resilience.
Through the lenses of their cameras, they craft portrait of maternal devotion that stretches beyond biology. This binds generations together in web of memory, care, shared labour.
Gara becomes a guardian not only of her niece’s safety but of the mountain itself which faces an existential threat. NATO’s 2017 plan to convert parts of Sinjajevina into military training ground could have permanently altered the ecosystem, displaced families, disrupted centuries of pastoral life.
The film captures the intersection of these battles, the personal and the political, as naturally intertwined, much like the streams and rocks of the land itself.
Everyday heroism in the highlands
One of the most remarkable qualities of ‘To Hold a Mountain’ is how it presents resistance. It’s not all shouting megaphones or dramatic street protests though those moments exist. Instead the film finds heroism in mundane.
Milking cows before dawn, huddling under duvets to ward off the mountain chill, rescuing newborn calf that has been trampled by its panicked mother; these small acts are laden with courage. They are forms of resistance.
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Gara’s resilience is palpable. Her hands swollen from years of labour move deftly across cows, goats, cheese-making tools. Her calmness under pressure, the kind that only comes from knowing the land as intimately as she knows herself, is mesmerising.
When she does take the rare step into public confrontation appearing on local TV or addressing her community, she is composed yet impassioned advocating for protection of her home with dignity that feels earned.
Nada: The next generation
Nada, teenager at the center of this story, offers quiet counterpoint to her aunt’s unwavering presence. She is contemplative, soft-spoken, connected to rhythms of the mountain. Yet the film allows us to sense her dreams reaching beyond the pastureland.
Tutorov and Glomazić capture this intergenerational tension beautifully. Gara hopes Nada will always return to Sinjajevina. Nada naturally begins to imagine larger world. Their unspoken understanding, intimacy forged through years of shared hardship and affection, gives the film tender emotional core.
In scenes where mother and daughter wrestle over blankets to stay warm, or search frantically for a newly birthed calf, there is a rhythm of life and survival that transcends dialogue. We watch, we breathe, and we feel the quiet majesty of living in complete synchrony with the land.
Resistance wears many faces
While helicopters occasionally circle overhead, the real fight in ‘To Hold a Mountain’ is often silent. Gara’s activism appearing on talk shows, addressing her community, and organising fellow shepherds, is important, but it’s framed within the larger story of persistence.
Resistance, as the film demonstrates, can simply mean staying. It can mean refusing to relinquish your home to forces that see it only as a resource or a tactical advantage.
Not all forms of protest are loud. Sometimes the quietest gestures carry heaviest weight. It can be tending your animals, preserving your traditions, educating next generation about their heritage.
Intergenerational wisdom and feminist resonance
‘To Hold a Mountain’ is a feminist fable. Gara’s protection extends beyond her niece to broader community of women who have endured patriarchal violence. Her strength shows up in care she provides not only for Nada and animals but for land itself.
The film traces the legacies of abuse, loss, endurance. Yet it never allows despair to dominate. There is resilience. There is agency.
Perhaps the most enduring impression of ‘To Hold a Mountain’ is its celebration of temporal ecological rhythms. Snowfalls, spring blooms, summer pasturework, autumn harvests are chronicled with reverence.
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The film’s editing led by George Cragg allows for these rhythms to breathe, using long takes when intimacy demands and sharp cuts when narrative focus is required.
In doing so, the documentary transforms ordinary labour into visual poem. Milking, herding, cheese-making, and even moments of rest become acts of devotion; not only to family and community but to land that sustains them.
Personal is political
While backdrop of NATO’s military ambitions provides urgency, ‘To Hold a Mountain’ refrains from becoming a political manifesto. The filmmakers present facts, document protest, and highlight threats, but always through the lens of human experience.
The audience sees the consequences of policy decisions in eyes of those who live them daily. A young girl watching cows struggle, a woman debating on television, pasture threatened by development – all of it.
This subtlety ensures that the film remains accessible, emotionally resonant, relatable.
The film allows the audience to become voyeurs not in a prurient sense. But this happens in the sense of sharing in life rarely seen. Watching Gara tuck Nada in, help her with chores, reflect on past losses is to witness love in its purest, most resilient form. Ah!
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Even mundane moments like shared meal, trek to rescue calf are imbued with emotional weight. This approach shows the documentary’s central thesis that personal is political, that survival is as much about love and care as it is about activism.
Audiences encounter a land that has remained mostly untouched where traditions endure, where human and non-human life are intertwined.
‘To Hold a Mountain’ is revolutionary, quietly. It transforms intimate domestic life into a canvas for exploring resilience, conservation, and feminist courage.
The film is a paean to maternal devotion, a meditation on environmental stewardship, and a nod to the quiet heroism of women who protect both life and legacy.