Director(s): Liam Le Guillou
Writer(s): Liam Le Guillou
Starring:
Runtime:
Rating: n/a
Our Rating: ★★★½
An Unknown Compelling Force is the true story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident, known as Russia’s greatest unsolved mystery. The documentary directed by British adventure filmmaker, Liam Le Guillou, is just as the title suggests compelling, fascinating and well just plain creepy.
In 1959 a group of student hikers were attempting a difficult winter expedition in the remote Ural Mountains of Russia when an unknown event lead to the mysterious deaths of all nine.
When the team failed to report back, search parties lead by the Soviet Government and fellow students uncovered the grizzly remains of the hikers. Found a mile from their shredded tent,they seemingly fled into the freezing temperatures without their winter clothes or boots. Adding to the mystery, many of the bodies had suffered brutal and inexplicable injuries, and some even showed traces of radiation.
The film uses actual photos of the scene photographed by the rescuers, images from the expedition taken from the hikers abandoned cameras and gives detailed accounts via the diaries of the perished hikers.
Director Le Guillou states, “Reading through hundreds of online articles and blog posts, and watching hours of online YouTube videos, I realized that everyone was repackaging the same tired “facts” of the case. The brutal injuries found on the bodies of the hikers fueled wild theories including UFOs, military weapon tests, and even an attack from the Russian Yeti! Finding officially verifiable information was almost impossible, and it was driving me crazy.”
For reasons still unexplained by officials the case was closed by investigators at the time, stating that the hikers died from “An Unknown Compelling Force.” For more than 60 years the story has been shrouded in mystery and conspiracy theories, suggesting everything from UFO’s, murder to a Soviet Government cover-up.
“I managed to make contact with the founder of the Dyatlov Foundation in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Yuri Kuntsevich was willing to help me on my journey to find answers in this highly unusual case. I realized that the opportunity for an adventure of a lifetime had just opened its doors to me,” says Le Guillou.
Kuntsevich was a young boy when he attended the funerals of the hikers in 1959. He attended the same university and joined the same hiking club. He is now at the very heart of the story, as founder of The Dyatlov Foundation, a center for information dedicated to finding the truth of the mystery.
Le Guillou along with a documentary team travels under the radar to Russia in search of answers. Braving the dangerous conditions and hundreds of miles in sub-polar conditions to get to the exact location of the fatal expedition, a place the locals call “The Dead Mountain.”
Le Guillou also conducted interviews with experts of the doomed expedition, and a Russian reporter who has written a book on the case, as well as a Special Agent for the FBI, and a 36-year experienced coroner. One expert showed how one piece of information in the autopsy report was inaccurate, completely disproving a huge theory.
Although, An Unknown Compelling Force is an eerie documentary it extremely engaging. Le Guillou does an excellent job with walking us viewers through the events as they unfolded, via pictures and diary entries. By visiting the location as it is today, you can imagine how treacherous the hike would have been in 1959. He also shows how some of the theories are more plausible than others.
An Unknown Compelling Force is available digitally on June 15, 2021.