The Summit of the Gods
Mount Everest is scaled in a fine animated film which also happens to be a cliffhanger of a documentary.
As I am averse to most of the animated films released today, The Summit of the Gods comes as a refreshing surprise. It is based on a Japanese manga story about the climbing of the south face of Everest. Narrated by a photo-journalist called Fukamachi, it deals with his obsession with the past and the explorer George Mallory who claimed to have conquered the mountain via its most difficult route before he died on the mountain in 1924. Fukamachi wants to see for himself and is offered photographic proof by way of a camera alleged to have belonged to Mallory.
Meanwhile, another mountaineer, the legendary Habu, a mysterious and almost invisible creature, also wishes to conquer Everest in the most difficult way possible. When Habu disappears to climb Everest, Fukamachi goes off in search of this elusive figure. They were both out to get answers to what had become a mystery or a myth about the world's highest mountain and the legends who first climbed it. This is not a story just about mountaineering and the wish to conquer Everest merely because it's there, but more about two men and their obsession with the mountain and the climbers who first reached the peak. They need to know the truth about the Summit of the Gods.
It is not an obvious subject for an animated film treatment but co-writer and director Patrick Imbert and his skilled team of animators have made a beautiful job of evoking the Himalayas and its treacherous appeal to those climbers who feel that they must reach the top. The animation is delicate, spare and in many ways more real than any photographs of the locations could possibly do them justice. Even though the pictures on the screen are hand drawn, they exude a real threat of danger as the protagonists undergo the scaling of the mountain with its all too obvious risks. In its own way this is as nail-biting an experience for the audience as it might have been for the original climbers themselves. The combination of animated figures set against a background of monumental rocks is breathtakingly real. In itself, this is an outstanding work of great artistic merit.
Original title: Le sommet des dieux.
MICHAEL DARVELL
Voices of Eric Herson-Macarel, Damien Boisseau, Elisabeth Ventura, Rich Ting, Luc Bernard, Kylian Rehlinger, Marc Arnaud.
Dir Patrick Imbert, Pro Damien Brunner, Didier Brunner, Jean-Charles Ostorero and Stephan Roelants, Screenplay Jiro Taniguchi and Baku Yumemakura (manga), Magali Pouzol and Patrick Imbert (screenplay, adaptation and dialogue) and Jean-Charles Ostorero (collaboration), Animation Dir Felicien Colmet-Daage, Gaelle Thierry, Nils Robin and Christian Desmares, Pro Des David Coquard-Dassault and Mikael Robert, Ed Benjamin Massoubre and Camillelvis Thery, Music Amin Bouhafa, Voice Dir Celine Ronte, Dubbing Dir David Zellner (English version).
Julianne Films/Folivari/Melusine Productions/France 3 Cinema-Netflix.
95 mins. France/Luxembourg. 2021. US Rel: 24 November 2021. UK Rel: 26 November 2021. Cert PG. Available on Netflix.