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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Sarah Crompton

‘It’s easier than life on the ground’: meet the Russian climbers who fell in love scaling the world’s skyscrapers

Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus kiss on the very top of a tall building
‘If you keep helping each other through the obstacles, you get where you are going’: Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus in a scene from Skywalkers: A Love Story. Photograph: Netflix

“This film contains extremely dangerous and illegal activities. Do not attempt to imitate.” Those words flash up on the screen at the start of Skywalkers: A Love Story, the most vertigo-inducing documentary you will see this year.

It tells the story of two Russian “rooftoppers”, Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, who find fame by scrambling to the top of the world’s tallest buildings and posing there, without harnesses or safety nets, taking photographs and films to post on social media to incite wonder and admiration. On their way up a construction crane on the tower of Goldin Finance 117 in Tianjin, China, they begin to fall in love.

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