The Great Road is a documentary that follows a nomadic cyclist who pursues grueling challenges and freedom.

Screening at the London Film Festival, Adam and Christine Bonk's documentary and character study is a road trip full of mountain scenery and other nature – and existential questions.

Many years ago, Maximilian Chanel left his work and life in Paris and began a nomadic life by bicycle. The road has given him freedom and adventure. And he has set himself exhausting physical and mental challenges.

The Complete Road, a documentary from Danish directors and brothers Adam and Christian Bonke, follows him on an extreme journey through some of Europe's highest mountain passes, while also being a meditation on modern life and a character study. For one, even in the age of digital nomads, the Chanel lifestyle puts pressure on everything. And then, his relationship with his life partner Nina makes him question his priorities in life.

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So, get ready for mountain views and grueling days of cycling to leave you breathless and questioning your life choices!

Elk and Dogwoof produced Full Road, with Andreas Dalsgaard, Anna Gudas, Ollie Harbottle, Miriam Norgaard serving as producers. Cinematography by Jonathan Mose and editing by Martin Anton.

After its world premiere at the Zurich Film Festival, The Complete Road has been screened at the 70th edition of the BFI London Film Festival. THR spoke with Bonkes in London about the film and caught up with Schnell via Zoom in Bolzano.

"I planned this challenge for seven or eight months, maybe a year," Schnell tells THR. "From what I understand about the film industry, it's a very long process because it takes a long time to write the script, finance the film, and things like that, and you usually do it before [shooting] the film." I'm not procrastinating. "And I was very clear about that from day one."

The film team had to come up with a strategy to get as much as possible without interfering with the cloak challenge. "That's what I always said," recalls the cyclist. "I'm in my challenge and I'm living my life. If you want to make a documentary, it has to be really documentary. There's no way I'm playing anything. I won't repeat any scene." I said, "You deal with everything you can, but I'm not compatible with you. "I don't want filmmaking to take away one bit of my energy. To film something, and I tried to achieve something, and that's it."

The filmmakers had different plans for how to best film. In the process, they embarked on an adventure that included three months of living in a camper and filming not only technology and nature, but all kinds of other winding roads. "We originally thought we'd have multiple DPs over the course of three months," Christian Bonk tells THR. "But then our DP got fired by his girlfriend, and he had nowhere to stay. So he said, 'I'll do the whole three months.' That's perfect for me." And Adam and I took turns."

However, you don't have to worry about the cameraman. "He said, 'I'm going back with another man,'" says Adam Bohnke. And he did. "He came back and got back with his girlfriend and now they have twins."

What helped Bonkes plan the expedition was the man they followed. Max is very organized. And he's a bit of a stickler when it comes to planning and plotting, Adam Bohnke tells THR. So we knew almost every day where he was going to be, which peaks he was going to climb, and we could look at the next 12 days and say, "Okay, he's going to be at this peak in Austria then, and he's going to be at this peak in Austria in 16 days, but in 16 more days, when the weather gets there. It stuck to the plan amazingly."

Chanel was adamant that the film crew could not help her. "At some point we were thinking maybe the crew could take a set of tires, so I'd have them on their car if mine wore out," he says. But I didn't want them to take energy from me and I also didn't want any advantage.

Christian Bohnke shows how Schnell stuck to his independence and actually completed the mountain challenge without help during the trip. "At night, we wanted to invite him into the campervan and feed him," he says. But he really refused. He was once in a short van for a long time."

"Yeah, we just wanted to show him what we were doing, what film we had," adds Adam. And he came in for two minutes and left again."

Since Chanel valued her freedom and nature, the two filmmakers also realized that she sometimes needed more space. "At first he was excited that we were making the film, but he was focused on the hard physical work," says Christian. "So pretty soon he got a little tired of the camera being there, too. One of his core values ​​is solitude, but he had three of us hanging around with him all the time."

"I think the worst thing for him was probably the fact that there was a car behind him because he really loves nature, silence, solitude and just being in the moment," adds Adam. And then we were behind him in a diesel van.

"So, we focused on not being too intrusive," concludes Christian. "I think we let him be in the zone, and I think you can almost feel that sometimes he gets so used to being around us that he doesn't even notice us."

However, the two filmmakers must be prepared to capture any unusual encounters or special moments. "We quickly realized and anticipated that filming a guy going up and down mountains every day would get repetitive," Adam recalls. "It's going to get boring. So we really needed to be there when he's doing something else, when he's meeting someone, when he's with his friends, when he's talking to other humans. We wanted to give him as much space as we could, but we also really needed to be there when a social thing happened."

Did the film crew feel that the camera had an effect on Chanel? It's interesting what the camera kind of does to you. Christian Bohnke suggests that I think you begin to reflect in some way. There is almost a metaphysical element to the way he senses our gaze. He told us early on that he might have wondered if he could go on like this for the rest of his life. So this was something left in the back of his mind. "He lived like this for almost 10 years, sleeping in a tent every night."

In fact, things have changed little since filming took place three years ago. When asked if he's planning any new big mountain challenges, Schnell tells THR: "In the three years since this challenge, there haven't been any ideas that really seem interesting enough to pursue. I mean, I'm up to the challenge because now I have a base camp here in Bolzano. It is quite a challenge to settle down somewhere. I create backpacking events, so it's a different challenge. It's not a dramatic, athletic challenge, but for me, it's challenging."

Can people see Chanel in another movie or series? “You never say never, but not a documentary — that's for sure,” he shares.

The Biker leaves it up to Full Road viewers to decide what they want or actually take away from the movie experience.

The filmmaker duo took something with them from the months they were in the camper. "We often talk about how we miss those days. After meeting Max, we were completely amazed at how conventional our lives at home were and how restrictive they were. So we can have a glimpse of a different life."

And Adam Bohnke shares with THR: “He says he trades comfort for freedom. That is a very good thing to say. And it really frames everything perfectly. We were interested to know what the price of this potential freedom was. I think we can all relate in some way to what he has done. We all fantasize from time to time about quitting, changing things, doing something radical in our lives. But few of us do anything. "Whether you're into cycling or not, this is a man who has really done something radical with his life."

You should watch Perfect Road to see how you feel about pushing the boundaries of freedom.

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