Ascension (2013)

Two mountaineers find unforeseen difficulties to place a statue of the Virgin Mary at the top of the peak they are climbing.

Watching this short film sight unseen was a good approach to take; the short opens with a beautiful sense of scale and adventure as the white-out reveals the mountain and the two men battling against it. It immediately feels like it will be a dramatic epic – and it keeps this tone throughout. However, what it mostly does is some enjoyable physical comedy. The laughs are fairly gentle and the sketch is quite simple, but it works because of how well the absurdity clashes with the seriousness of the rest of the presentation. It makes the jokes land better throughout and it is very pleasing in its humor.

Directed by: Thomas Bourdis, Martin de Coudenhove, Caroline Domergue, Colin Laubry and Florian Vecchione.