Matthias Weger: “For these tight couloirs, you really have to be angry”

“The Red-Face Zone” is an ironic, action-packed masterpiece. The Weger brothers can act as well as they can ski and snowboard. Matthias Weger explains why the film revolves around a mysterious anger-related illness and the descent of extremely brutal couloirs in the Dolomites.

Can you describe the area in the Dolomites where you filmed “The Red-Face Zone”?

Matthias Weger: In the Dolomites, we often get a lot of wind. And because the couloirs there are so narrow, they hardly get any wind. That’s why, when it’s windy, we often head to the Dolomites because there’s still powder there. Four years ago, on a ski tour, I saw a very steep couloir that was interrupted in the middle. It looked to me as though there was a tunnel connecting the upper and lower parts. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I went back the next day because it looked really insane. And it turned out to be a tunnel. Back then, at the end of the season, the passage was very small—only 50 to 70 centimeters high. I went up and skied down, having to squeeze my way through. It was really funny, but more of a gag.

How did things develop from there?

At some point, the challenge arose to ski the couloirs faster and faster. Then the idea came up to “send” the tunnel and the couloirs once (to go full throttle) and maybe even “straight-line” them (ski straight through without stopping). But that was more of a distant dream.

How important is a certain level of anger and aggression to ski such gnarly couloirs?

Jakob and I would always joke: “I’m really angry today, my face is super red. I need to ski these couloirs, I’m ready now to throw myself down.” And you really need that, because up there, you only have two options: either you ski slowly behind the sluff, or you go full throttle and try to stay ahead of the sluff. That’s how the idea for “The Red-Face Zone” came about. We often joked that we had such red faces today to tackle this insane “Red-Face Zone.”

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When did the idea of making a film come about?

Last year, at the Freeride Film Festival, we spoke with Marco Tribelhorn about how cool it would be to make a film about these super-tight couloirs in the Dolomites. We wanted to do something a bit different from what you usually see in ski films, and that’s where the idea of the red faces and the mysterious illness came from.

How did you manage the acting parts, where you completely let loose with your anger?

The whole acting part was very difficult to pull off for Jakob and me. It was quite a challenge, because we’re not actors at all. It was really tough to get it right. But we were determined to finish the project and didn’t want to spend ages filming. So, we just gave it a go, and eventually, it worked out. Sure, some parts aren’t so polished, and you can see we had our struggles, but it was a really fun time.

Where did you shoot the dark, almost macabre scenes of the film?

That was in an old holiday house in the mountains, which belongs to a friend of ours. We shot all the story scenes there over three days. Luckily, the weather wasn’t great, so the “FOMO” (fear of missing out) wasn’t too bad – meaning we didn’t feel too bad about filming at the house instead of going out to ski and snowboard. It was a lot of fun, but we were happy when it was all over after three days.