Ascent

Ascent

2016 · 80 min · ★ 5.4 · Drama

Through a grey blanket of clouds, we barely discern the contours of Mount Fuji, a volcano with many faces. 4,500 exceptional and diverse photographs from the past 150 years form the basis for Ascent. Made entirely with stills, it is a filmic experiment balancing between documentary and fiction, photography and film, where an English woman and her deceased Japanese partner, Hiroshi, lead the way. As Mount Fuji is climbed across geographical, temporal and cultural divides, the narrative unfolds, exploring unexpected paths.

Directed by Fiona Tan · Written by Fiona Tan

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Rent or Buy

Tenk

Cast

Make it a double feature

2h 20m together

Both from Fiona Tan.

More from Fiona TanSee all →

May You Live in Interesting TimesMay You Live in Interesting Times · 1997
May You Live in Interesting Times
★ 9.01997
MovieDocumentary
Tan’s father is Chinese-Indonesian and her mother is Australian. She grew up in Australia and studied in Germany and the Netherlands. Her multicultural background led her to seek out family members scattered around the globe and interview them for this film.
Dearest FionaDearest Fiona · 2023
Dearest Fiona
2023
MovieDrama
As a voice reads letters from a father to his daughter off camera, 20th century archival images from the Netherlands are shown. Fiona Tan touchingly explores what potential emerges when sound and image diverge.
Facing ForwardFacing Forward · 1999
Facing Forward
1999
Movie
In reframing and re-editing existing ethnographic films, Tan exposes their anthropological underpinnings and questions the conventions of filmmaking. What is the relationship between the observer and the observed? How can one ever know another? The voice-over, a fictional dialogue taken from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, may offer an answer. The explorer Marco Polo and Emperor Kublai Khan are speaking about travel and looking back on the past, when Polo observes, “The traveler recognises the little that is his, discovering the much he has not had and will never have.”
Downside UpDownside Up · 2002
Downside Up
2002
Movie
‘…I lose my bearings. But after all, is that such a bad thing?’ - FT
A Lapse of MemoryA Lapse of Memory · 2007
A Lapse of Memory
2007
MovieDrama
A confused old man, Henry, lives on his own in an old empty building that is reminiscent of a deserted palace. Henry hasn't been outside for years. The camera follows a day in his life - his simple daily chores and his eccentric rituals. Henry looks like a European from a good family, but has many Asian habits. The second protagonist is the building in which Henry is staying: the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. It is one of the best preserved examples of chinoise architecture and furnishing in the world. Neither the client nor the architect had ever set foot in Asia. In a monologue, a parallel narrative unfolds in a game with reality and fiction. Word and image, fiction and documentary become intertwined with each other and point across the frontiers of ‘East’ versus ‘West’.
NellieNellie · 2013
Nellie
2013
Movie
Transporting the viewer to a very different time and place, Nellie is inspired by the life of Cornelia van Rijn, Rembrandt's illegitimate daughter, who at the age of sixteen emigrated to Batavia (present-day Jakarta). Little is known about Cornelia's life; no portraits of her are known to exist. But this omission from the history books was for the artist an opportunity to give her imagination free reign. With this unsettling work Tan offers a touching homage to a forgotten woman, whose 'suspended history' becomes activated again.
Vertical WideVertical Wide · 2018
Vertical Wide
2018
Movie
With a static camera Tan films the dense night-time traffic in West Los Angeles from her temporary studio location at the Getty Center. Undercutting the cinematic quality inherent in this view of teeming traffic, the upright frame instead suggests a domestic window or an abstract painting. The space is flattened, and the viewer is unsettled. Shorn of a narrative, Vertical Wide is part of a trio of video works that are a series of dream-like moving pictures.
Gray GlassGray Glass · 2020
Gray Glass
2020
Movie
Saint SebastianSaint Sebastian · 2001
Saint Sebastian
2001
Movie
Saint Sebastian was filmed by Fiona Tan at the annual ‘Toshiya’ in Kyoto, a coming-of-age ceremony for women aged twenty in 2001. It was for the first time ever that a film camera was allowed to capture the procedings. Dressed in traditional kimono hundreds of young women perform the Japanese art of archery in a ritual that has persisted for over four centuries, combining female grace and beauty with the typically male skills of physical and mental strength. The monumental video installation is presented on both sides of a large single screen which hangs diagonally in the exhibition space.
InventoryInventory · 2012
Inventory
2012
Movie
Vertical RedVertical Red · 2018
Vertical Red
2018
Movie
With a static camera Tan films the dense night-time traffic in West Los Angeles from her temporary studio location at the Getty Center. Undercutting the cinematic quality inherent in this view of teeming traffic, the upright frame instead suggests a domestic window or an abstract painting. The space is flattened, and the viewer is unsettled. Shorn of a narrative, Vertical Red is part of a trio of video works that are a series of dream-like moving pictures.
Vertical WhiteVertical White · 2018
Vertical White
2018
Movie
With a static camera Tan films the dense night-time traffic in West Los Angeles from her temporary studio location at the Getty Center. Undercutting the cinematic quality inherent in this view of teeming traffic, the upright frame instead suggests a domestic window or an abstract painting. The space is flattened, and the viewer is unsettled. Shorn of a narrative, Vertical White is part of a trio of video works that are a series of dream-like moving pictures.
FootstepsFootsteps · 2022
Footsteps
2022
MovieHistory
In Footsteps, Fiona Tan creates connections between personal stories and the world around us. The footage shows children at play and Dutch windmills, but above all people engaged in heavy physical labour in the countryside and in factories. In a fascinating juxtaposition, she combines these images with excerpts from letters she received from her father just after she moved to the Netherlands in the late 1980s. Through his education in Indonesia, Tan’s father knew a lot about the Netherlands without ever having visited the country. In the letters, he meanders seamlessly between personal news and world events, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing.
Lin­naeus’ Flow­er ClockLin­naeus’ Flow­er Clock · 1998
Lin­naeus’ Flow­er Clock
1998
Movie
A reflection on the passing of time.
Janine’s RoomJanine’s Room · 2025
Janine’s Room
2025
Movie
A three-panel video installation commissioned by the Rijksmuseum for the exhibition Monomania, curated by Fiona Tan.
Rise and FallRise and Fall
Rise and Fall
MovieDocumentary
Rise and Fall is a two-channel video installation by artist Fiona Tan, exploring the relationship between memory, time and identity. Two women from different generations appear in similar landscapes, their everyday routines interwoven with gestures that evoke memories and connections across time. Images of moving water serve as a metaphor for the fluid relationship between past and present, as memories and experiences continually overlap and influence one another.

More Like This

Blue My MindBlue My Mind · 2017
Blue My Mind
★ 6.72017
MovieFantasyDrama
15-year-old Mia faces an overwhelming transformation which puts her entire existence into question. Her body is changing radically, and despite desperate attempts to halt the process, Mia is soon forced to accept that nature is far more powerful than she is.
The Magdalene SistersThe Magdalene Sisters · 2002
The Magdalene Sisters
★ 7.52002
MovieDramaHistory
Three young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum.
The CountessThe Countess · 2009
The Countess
★ 5.92009
MovieDramaHistory
Kingdom of Hungary, 17th century. As she gets older, powerful Countess Erzsébet Báthory (1560-1614), blinded by the passion that she feels for a younger man, succumbs to the mad delusion that blood will keep her young and beautiful forever.
CaramelCaramel · 2007
Caramel
★ 6.92007
MovieDramaComedy
In a beauty salon in Beirut the lives of five women cross paths. The beauty salon is a colorful and sensual microcosm where they share and entrust their hopes, fears and expectations.
Surviving with WolvesSurviving with Wolves · 2007
Surviving with Wolves
★ 6.32007
MovieDrama
In 1942, the young Jewish girl Misha, her Russian mother Gerusha and her German father Reuven hide from the Germans in a small house in Ardennes, Belgium. Misha is very connected to her mother that advises her that if one day a person comes to her saying "love of my life", she would follow him or her without any question. When her parents are captured by the Nazis, Misha is delivered to a German family and the abusive matriarch gives a bad treatment to the girl. However, she finds support in the family of Ernest and his deranged wife Marthe that supplies groceries to foster family. Misha loves Ernest's dogs and the old man gives a compass to her and tells that her parents have been sent to East to forced labor. When the old couple is denounced for sheltering the girl and arrested by the Germans, Misha flees through the woods heading east. Along her journey seeking out her parents...
The SavagesThe Savages · 2007
The Savages
★ 6.92007
MovieDramaComedy
A sister and brother face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father.
MM · 2017
M
★ 6.42017
MovieDrama
Lila and Mo meet at a bus stop. Lila has a paralyzing speech impediment. Mo is chatty and exuberant. Lila is preparing for her exams. Mo illegally races cars for a living. Opposites attract, and they fall in love. But Mo carries a secret burden…
WaterWater · 2005
Water
★ 6.82005
MovieDramaRomance
In 1938, Mahatma Gandhi's groundbreaking philosophies sweep across India, but 8-year-old Chuyia, newly widowed, must go reside with other outcast widows on an ashram. Her presence transforms the ashram as she befriends two of her compatriots.
Mouth to MouthMouth to Mouth · 2005
Mouth to Mouth
★ 5.52005
MovieDrama
An aimless adolescent joins several itinerant misfits who live on the fringe of society and welcome at-risk youths into their fold.
Beautiful MemoriesBeautiful Memories · 2001
Beautiful Memories
★ 6.92001
MovieRomanceDrama
Although barely 30, Claire believes she is showing the first symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, a condition from which her mother has recently died. Her sister, Nathalie, is certain that her memory loss, caused by a lightning strike, is temporary. In the clinic where she is being treated, Claire is attracted to Philippe, a man who is still traumatized after a car accident in which his wife and child were both killed. In spite of their personal tragedies, Claire and Philippe fall in love. When Philippe recovers, Claire moves into his home. Then Claire's condition takes a turn for the worse.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter