The Ascent

The Ascent is a 1994 American war adventure film directed by Donald Shebib. The film is an adaptation of a memoir by a then Italian prisoner of war in 1942 British East Africa who challenges his English captor in a climb of Mount Kenya. Plot During the 1942 African Campaign of the Second World War, an isolated British East African POW camp sits on a dusty plain in the shadow of Mount Kenya, said to be one of the most difficult mountains in the world to climb. The camp is staffed mainly by African subjects overseen by a few British soldiers and their commander, the stiff-lipped Major David Farrell (Ben Cross), who lost both his wife and child to the war. One of the Major's preoccupations has been attempting to ascend one of Kenya's forbidding southern approaches, but he has been frustrated, his failure a joke amongst the mostly Italian prisoners, including his nemesis Franco Distassi (Vincent Spano), a world-class climber who has attempted escape five times. Succeeding on his sixth breakout attempt, Franco steals a jeep and makes his way through the Kenyan countryside to a small village, crashing the jeep to avoid hitting another truck stuck in the road. After an initial misunderstanding with the occupants, an industrialist and his daughter, Patricia (Rachel Ward), Franco fixes their truck and stays for lunch. He resembles Patricia's late husband, and his intelligence and charm leave an impression on her. When the British catch up with him, Franco goes quietly. Standing before the Major, he taunts the commander for failing to conquer the mountain, further vexing him. Franco is put into solitary confinement. The demoralized commanding officer of the Italians, Enzo (Tony Lo Bianco), devises a scheme to regain his and the others' honor: a select band will escape to climb Mount Kenya with the aim of reaching the 16,300 ft Point Lenana and planting the Italian flag there before returning to the camp, a feat that will also humiliate their captors. Franco agrees with the proviso that he makes his own descent from the other side into Italian-occupied Somalia. Gear is produced by artisan prisoners, including the German Kist (Rico Vanden Hurck), who trades his compass for a place on the three-man climbing team.