THE SUMMIT OF THE GODS: FILM REVIEW

Patrick Imbert’s The Summit of the Gods challenges the notion that death is life’s antithesis — through telling the story of climbers who constantly risk their lives pursuing something they can’t help doing. Imbert’s animated French film, based on Jirô Taniguchi’s manga adaptation of Baku Yumemakura’s 1998 novel, does not try to understand why people do the unthinkable; he already knows there’s no point. Instead, Imbert deftly portrays a pursuit that seems to closely resemble madness — and argues that it might be more innately human than one might think.

The Summit of the Gods is told through the eyes of a magazine photographer Makoto Fukamachi (voiced by Damien Boisseau), who follows a group of climbers to Mount Everest to document their expedition. The climbers abort the journey due to poor planning, and Fukamachi returns frustrated. While at a bar in Kathmandu, a man approaches him with an old camera that he claims belonged to George Mallory, a real-life explorer who disappeared while attempting the Everest climb. Fukamachi brushes off the man with the camera, but when he steps outside, he witnesses fictional climber Habu Joji (voiced by both Éric Herson Macarel and Lazare Herson Macarel) snatching it away. This begins Fukamachi’s quest to track down not only a camera that holds the answer to one of the greatest mysteries in the climbing world, but also Habu, a legend who disappeared years ago after almost being killed in an avalanche incident.

But a search for one man’s story is inevitably also a search for one’s own. Throughout the film, there is a sense of wandering — of going to great lengths to chase after meaning — with a determination that borders desperation. Fukamachi’s editor encourages him to stop wasting his time on a story that he doesn’t even know exists. Little does he know that Fukamachi can’t; he’s already woven himself into its fabric. And closer he gets to uncovering Habu’s past, the clearer it becomes that the two are not so different. Both presume that walking a path alone is the only way forward. In the end, it is the mountains that prove them wrong.

At points, The Summit of the Gods rages with the frustration of man’s fight with nature; even the smallest of victories come with great losses. But for the most part, The Summit of the Gods is suspensfully quiet — quivering like a candle in a room with only the slightest breeze. Ropes fray, footholds crumble, and muscles ache. Imbert uses the simplicity of 2D animation to exhibit the vastness of some of nature’s tallest and whitest peaks. Swift lines become textured mountains and a subdued color palette attempts to capture the purity of summits that could only have been molded by the hands of gods. Climbing sequences are breathtaking — so much so that sometimes the animated film feels like a documentary.

In many ways, The Summit of the Gods works cyclically. Characters reach great feats, but the only thing it leads to is the irresistible urge to do it again. The word “challenge” is constantly being contested; one’s greatest competitor becomes himself. Is it that absurd for someone to want to stand on top of the world? The Summit of the Gods argues it’s not; many of us spend our whole lives blindly living in valleys anyways.