There are some movies on which it is hard to write a review and "Et ils gravirent la montagne" is one of them. This short can surely not be dismissed as crap since it is technically well made, well paced and well edited, the natural settings (the Pyrénées mountains) are lovely, and the leading pair of actors (Perle M'Bongo and Yann Ebonge, two young colored performers) are fine and give a cool performance. Moreover, "Et ils gravirent la montagne" is intriguing during the most part of its running time . The trouble is that the questions that arise remain unanswered in the end or, at least, are answered in a way that escaped this writer. For what on earth is the meaning of this film? Let's take things point by point. At the beginning, we see two young fugitives climbing a mountain. We understand there has just been a drama in the factory down in the valley. It looks as if Fanny, the girl, has stabbed her manager and that someone called Richard is going to "slaughter" them if he captures them... All right, but why was Fanny driven to such an extreme and why did Simon choose to follow her, who is Richard, we are not told clearly. Later on, when the two young people feel sure they will not be traced, Fanny, on her own after Simon has disappeared, comes into a house in which all the people are asleep. Okay, but what actually happened to them remains unspecified. Has it something to do with an encounter of the third kind? This remains a guessing matter. The same is true concerning the film's key mystery, which will stay what it is, a mystery! It consists in the discovery by Fanny of a strange- looking mobile phone, emitting both a weird whine and a greenish glow. Nobody answers it when Simon tries to talk to someone at the other end. Has it anything to do with the sleeping people mentioned above ? And the ending is so vague (Fanny and Simon look at the firmament and pull away into the night while a poem in English is heard for the second time) that you feel frustrated whereas you expected the mystery to be solved more satisfyingly. Is this philosophy ? or sci-fi ? or some unidentified new film genre? Of course, this unsolved mystery is intended and this writer may be too rational (a typically Gallic defect) to really enjoy this strange movie. But this is the way I personally felt and it's up to each viewer to judge for themselves. All in all, to the question asked above: "what is the point of this film?", my final answer will be: "I'm afraid I don't know". Which does not mean I disliked watching it. I even got hooked until the final sequence. The only problem is the "so what?" feeling, Jean-Sébastien Chauvin's short left me with...
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