In the far flung future some prisoners are sent to spend their days on lonely planets mining for minerals. On one planet Elias Koteas is living out his days mining and waiting to die. One day Brianna Middleton is sent to the planet. She was arrested and charged with terroristic behavior because she was raised on an alien planet by species the humans are trying to destroy. As the two try to find a common ground tension grows as a secret from the past emerges and the pair discover there may be an unpleasant connection.
I’m going to be honest and say this probably shouldn’t be playing at Fantasia. I say this not because the film is bad, oh lord, it’s not, rather because aside from the other worldly setting this is a film that is very much about the here and now. It is a film which is doing what all the best genre films do which is filter todays world through the prism that makes the topics discussing. While the genre setting, in theory, make this perfect for Fantasia the fact that this is really more a mediation on immigration, fear of the other and the dark things we do and have to live with make this film something else entirely.
Watching the film I was kind of lost in that I was expecting something more action packed. What I got was essentially a chamber drama involving two people taking (There is more to it than that). It was a film much more heady than I expected. It was a film that felt like it really belonged at some of the big prestigious festivals like Toronto, Venice or New York. I was thrown and it wasn’t until the morning after I saw the film that I was ready to accept the film for what it was instead of being annoyed for what I thought it should be.
THE SILENT PLANET is a kick ass film. It is a film that anyone, especially those who “don’t like science fiction” need to see because it isn’t that. It is a deeply moving film that reflects todays world and acts as an examination of our shared humanity.
Highly recommended.
What about the performance of the two stars
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