Director: Andrew Kightlinger
A twelve-year-old boy vanishes into the Maine wilderness for nearly two weeks in Lost On A Mountain In Maine, a 2024 survival drama built around a real 1939 ordeal that gripped an entire state.
What is Lost On A Mountain In Maine about?
Donn Fendler is eager to reach the summit of Maine's highest peak, but when his father and brothers fall behind, the boy pushes ahead alone. A sudden fog rolls in and swallows the trail. A misstep sends him tumbling down an embankment, out of sight of the search party that soon fills the mountain. From there Donn is on his own, working out which streams lead down and which lead deeper into the woods, rationing nerve as much as food. Director Andrew Kightlinger keeps the camera close to the boy's point of view, so the mountain feels vast and indifferent rather than scenic. Back at the base, his family and a growing crew of volunteers wait through radio updates and false leads, the two threads only meeting once Donn finally reappears, changed by what the woods asked of him.
Cast & crew
Luke David Blumm carries nearly every scene as Donn, playing exhaustion and stubborn resolve without ever tipping into melodrama. Paul Sparks and Caitlin FitzGerald anchor the family's anguish at the search camp, while Ethan Slater appears among the search effort's more seasoned figures.
Context & significance
The film adapts Donn Fendler's own account of the ordeal, first published as a memoir that Maine schoolchildren have read for generations. Kightlinger shot on location in rugged terrain to keep the physical stakes tangible rather than digitally smoothed over, and the production leaned on period detail from the late 1930s rather than a modern survival-thriller gloss.
Where & how to watch
Lost On A Mountain In Maine streams on K-Time with a Persian dub and Farsi subtitles, alongside a fully Farsi menu experience built for the diaspora. The page itself is free to browse; watching only requires logging into a K-Time account.