To Hold a Mountain

With poetic empathy, this Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner maps the love and determination that tie a Montenegrin shepherd to her land.

In Montenegro’s starkly beautiful Sinjajevina alpine range, middle-aged Mileva “Gara” Jovanović herds sheep, milks cows, makes delicious cheese and laughs with her friends, all the while raising adoring teenager Nada to be kind and resilient. Women here have endured generations of patriarchal violence, and Gara works hard to hold her precious space of care and community. As NATO forces plan to exploit these high rolling pastures for military training, Gara stands her ground over a seven-year period, rallying her neighbours to repel repeated incursions into the land and life she holds dear.

The winner of the top prize in Sundance 2026’s documentary competition is uplifting enough as a portrayal of staunch matriarchal activism. But directors Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić are striving to capture something loftier: the mountain of love, grief and determination that Gara holds inside. Gently, elegantly, the film falls in rhythm with her steadfast seasonal labour; it’s beguilingly alert to the expressive power of sensory textures in the manner of Return to Dust (MIFF 2022), Honeyland (MIFF 2019) and In the Land of Wolves (MIFF 2018). Building an emotional cartography all its own, To Hold a Mountain traces the contours of the pure bonds between people and place.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival