How El Gouna Inspired the Soundtrack of 'Skywalkers: A Love Story'

‘Skywalkers: A Love Story’, directed by American Filmmaker Jeff Zimbalist and co-directed by Maria Bukhonina, is a Netflix documentary film that follows one real-life daredevil Russian couple, Angela Nikolau and Ivan (Vanya) Beerkus as they travel worldwide to climb the 118-story megatall skyscraper, Merdeka 118, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. While the documentary takes viewers on an exhilarating journey across the globe, scaling the world’s tallest buildings and delving into heart-pounding acrobatics, its musical heartbeat finds its roots in a much quieter, yet equally captivating place - El Gouna, Egypt. This high-stakes documentary, set against a backdrop of breathtaking skyscrapers and dizzying heights, carries with it a soundtrack born from the serene sands of this Red Sea destination.

“How so?” you may ask…

The soundtrack, composed by Tereza Dos Santos Costa, an El Gouna-based pianist and composer, once the host of El Gouna TV and founder of the sound therapy studio Sound Healing Egypt, found its first notes in the lush seaside coasts of El Gouna. Costa, whose partner is American filmmaker Jeff Zimbalist, recounts, “I wrote the melody in El Gouna, having just arrived from LA, super jet-lagged. Jeff had sent me a piece that had started as a set, and I recorded it with my iPhone on a half-broken piano. The melodies just came through me.” From there, the score ‘Angela’s Theme’ was born. “The inspiration has always been Egypt, it’s always been El Gouna,” Costa adds. 

Having been trained as a classical pianist and clarinetist in Berlin, Germany, Tereza Dos Santos Costa moved to El Gouna, Egypt, at the age of 19, finding within its calm embrace a freedom and a peace she had not encountered elsewhere, and has lived there since. When composing ‘Angela’s Theme’, Costa found familiarity in Angela Nikolau’s story, who herself had pursued rooftopping and ‘skywalking’ in a search for freedom and a break from social norms.

‘Angela's Theme’ serves as a musical motif that mirrors the emotional journey of Angela Nikolau. As her arc unfolds throughout the film, the theme reappears in various forms, capturing the nuances of her experiences. The orchestration of ‘Angela's Theme’ was carefully crafted to reflect the highs and lows of her journey. In more introspective and melancholic scenes, the melody adopts a softer, more subdued tone, underscoring moments of vulnerability and introspection. In contrast, during scenes of triumph and exhilaration, such as Angela's daring rooftop ascents and pivotal successes, the theme swells with a fuller, more uplifting arrangement.

"The freedom in El Gouna, combined with its stunning scenery and diverse community of individuals living authentically, deeply resonates with me, and so I felt a parallel between my story and that of Nikolau’s,” Tereza Dos Santos Costa shares in an exclusive interview with CairoScene. And yet that is not the only parallel encountered when composing ‘Angela’s Theme’, as ‘Skywalkers: A Love Story’ is a story about falling in love, both Tereza Dos Santos Costa and Jeff Zimbalist could not help but feel a certain parallel to the love story of Angela and ‘Vanya’.

“Life in El Gouna feels like stepping away from the machinery of the cities, which is similar to how I felt when I first started rooftopping. We were exploring themes of trust, fear, and courage through Angela and Ivan’s romance, and relating those themes to our own experiences,” Jeff Zimbalist shares in an exclusive interview with CairoScene. “It was beautiful to realize that the theme of the film - falling in love - had parallels to Tereza’s and my own relationship. Our relationship shares similarities with Angela and Vanya’s, and it was meaningful to see how their story resonated with ours.”

In this way, ‘Skywalkers: A Love Story’ not only captures the thrill of daring adventures but also intertwines personal connections and profound reflections on love, both on-screen and off, with lively melodic roots in El Gouna, Egypt. 

You can stream ‘Skywalkers: A Love Story’ on Netflix.