The Summit of the Gods (2021)
★★★ — The Summit of the Gods (2021)
The Summit of the Gods is a French-Luxembourgish animated feature from 2021, co-produced by Julianne Films, Folivari and Melusine Productions and running to 95 minutes. It is adapted from the manga series of the same name by Jiro Taniguchi, itself based on a novel by Baku Yumemakura, and it centres on a photojournalist who becomes consumed by a search for a legendary mountaineer who vanished years earlier. Woven through that present-day hunt is the enduring historical mystery of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, the British climbers who disappeared near the summit of Everest in June 1924, leaving open the question of whether they reached the top before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay did so in 1953. That question has haunted the mountaineering world for a century, and the film uses it as both backdrop and beating heart. The result sits somewhere between adventure, mystery and meditation, which puts it in fairly rare company for an animated film aimed squarely at adults.
The director is Patrick Imbert, who will be familiar to readers here from his earlier work on The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales, a film with a very different register but one that showed his confidence with character-driven animation. With The Summit of the Gods he moves into considerably heavier territory, and the visual approach shifts accordingly. The animation is handled in a style that draws heavily on the original manga's linework, rendered with a muted, almost painterly palette that suits the bleakness of high-altitude environments. It is polished but demanding work, the kind of film that asks its audience to sit with silence and landscape in a way that most mainstream animation simply does not. For comparison, Josep, another recent French animated feature reviewed on this site, showed a similar willingness to use the medium for serious, adult subject matter rather than family entertainment, and The Summit of the Gods sits comfortably in that same tradition.
The voice cast, performing in French, includes Éric Herson-Macarel, Damien Boisseau, Elisabeth Ventura, Lazare Herson-Macarel and Kylian Rehlinger. Animation reviewing can sometimes feel disconnected from performance, but the vocal work here carries considerable weight given how much of the film relies on internal monologue and conversation rather than action. The film's 95-minute runtime is not especially long on paper, but as anyone who has watched a film about mountaineering will know (and there is an interesting contrast to be drawn here with the documentary instincts on display in Ben Fogle and the Buried City), the pacing of a climb, real or fictional, is rarely built for impatience. Whether that patience is rewarded is very much the question.
A-Z World Movie Tour Luxembourg Visually stunning. The animation is breathtaking. Gritty, expressive, and full of atmosphere. The art style feels like a living painting, especially during the mountain sequences. Paired with a haunting, emotional score, this film is a technical marvel and a feast for the eyes. The story is SLOW. Like climbing Everest itself. It’s deeply focused on mountaineering lore and existential questions about obsession, legacy, and truth, which is all fine… if you’re already a fan of the subject. If not, it can feel like a long haul with no summit in sight. It’s fascinating how the film leans into ambiguity. Was Mallory successful? Did Irvine make it? We’ll never know. But that lack of resolution might leave some viewers cold. I really hate unfulfilled endings. Gorgeous, thoughtful, and atmospheric, just not always gripping.
And that tension between the stunning craft and the sometimes gruelling pace is where I keep landing when I think back on this one. The Mallory and Irvine question is genuinely one of history's great unsolved puzzles, and I can see why it lends itself to this kind of ambiguous storytelling. But there is a difference between ambiguity that lingers satisfyingly and ambiguity that simply trails off, and for me this one leans too far toward the latter. Films like Mustang show that French cinema, animated or otherwise, can balance a slow, considered tone with genuine emotional payoff, and The Summit of the Gods only gets part of the way there. Worth seeing for the visuals alone, but go in knowing the summit itself may feel just out of reach.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2021 | Watched: 2025-07-13
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for The Summit of the Gods (2021) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon US
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Patrick Imbert: The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales (2017)
More from France: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Letter from Siberia (1957) · Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Here and Elsewhere (1976)
More from the 2020s: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · The Long Walk (2025) · Americana (2023)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
