There is utterly beguiling about falling into a cinematic story, letting its long and winding narrative settled over you, immerse you and take you deep into its storytelling wonder.
Given the fact that the pandemic continues to wreak havoc in ways big and small across the globe, we need this sort of nourishing escape more than ever and so, we’re thankful that for all the interruptions and delays to production, that there remain some brilliant films on the horizon.
Such as the five featured here, all of which come with the possibility of an escape from the very worst of reality into an immersive world where we can, for a couple of hours, pretend we are living someone else’s story.
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New York, an alternate present: the quantum computing revolution has begun and investors are lining their pockets in the quantum trading market. Building the network requires miles of infrastructure to be laid between huge magnetic cubes by “cablers” – unprotected gig workers who compete against robots to pull simple wires over rough terrain. Queens delivery man Ray Tincelli (Dean Imperial) is skeptical of new technology, and the buy-in to start cabling is steep, but he struggles to support himself and his ailing younger brother, who suffers from a mysterious illness. So when Ray scores a shady permit, he believes their fortunes may have finally changed. What he doesn’t expect is to be pulled into a conspiracy involving hostile cablers, corporate greed, and the mysterious “Lapsis” who may have previously owned his permit. Lapsis is both written and directed by indie American filmmaker Noah Hutton, director of the film Mosaic previously, as well as the doc features Crude Independence, More to Live For, King for Two Days, Deep Time, and In Silico. (synopsis courtesy Flickering Myth)
Lapsis originally screening at SXSW2020 and releases in “virtual cinemas” on 12 February.
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Eastern Ukraine, 2025. A desert unsuitable for human habitation. Water is a dear commodity brought by trucks. A Wall is being build-up on the border. Sergiy, a former soldier, is having trouble adapting to his new reality. He meets Katya while on a Black Tulip mission dedicated to exhuming war corpses. Together, they try to return to some sort of normal life in which they are also allowed to fall in love again. Atlantis, originally known as Атлантида in Ukrainian, is both written and directed by the Ukrainian filmmaker Valentyn Vasyanovych, director of the films Zvychayna sprava, Kredens, and Black Level previously, as well as the doc film Crepuscule. (synopsis courtesy Flickering Myth)
Initially premiering at the Venice & Toronto Film Festivals in 2020, Atlantis released exclusively at Metrograph in NYC starting January 22nd, 2021, followed by debuts in select theatres nationwide.
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It is deep in Autumn and Sam and Tusker, partners of twenty years, are on holiday. They are travelling across England in their old campervan visiting friends, family and places from their past. Since Tusker was diagnosed with young-onset dementia two years ago their lives have had to change. Jobs have been given up and plans put on hold. Their time together is now the most important thing they have. As the trip progresses however, their individual ideas for their future begin to collide. Secrets are uncovered, private plans unravel and their love for each other is tested like never before. Ultimately, they must confront the question of what it means to love one another in the face of Tusker’s irreparable illness. Supernova is both written and directed by British actor / filmmaker Harry Macqueen, his second feature after making the film Hinterland previously. (synopsis courtesy Flickering Myth)
Currently screening in select US theatres, Supernova moves to VOD on 16 February; the film will screen at the Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney in February.
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In the world of Anmaere, north of the city of Whithren, wild horses run through the moorlands and up the coast. These horses are the city’s most valuable export, and as a result are hunted, trapped, sold & shipped across the sea once a year. For those in Whithren, this trade creates lucrative and exciting possibilities: the chance to escape their constantly sweltering city to head to the Western continent of Levithen, or just to begin again. Meanwhile in a small house just north of the city, a young woman dies in childbirth. Her last words are an attempt to tell her daughter of the life she will have and her inheritance of a recurring dream that must be kept secret; for it contains the memories of another age long before us, one where magic and myth were alive in the world. The Wanting Mare is written & directed by filmmaker Nicholas Ashe Bateman, making his feature directorial debut after a few shorts and VFX work previously. (synopsis courtesy Flickering Myth)
The Wanting Mare is currently screening in US theatres and on VOD.
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An unfulfilled man (Owen Wilson) and a mysterious woman (Salma Hayek) believe they are living in a simulated reality, but when their newfound ‘Bliss’ world begins to bleed into the ‘ugly’ world they must decide what’s real and where they truly belong. Bliss is written and directed by American indie filmmaker Mike Cahill, director of the films Another Earth and I Origins previously, as well as some TV projects. (synopsis courtesy Flickering Myth)
Bliss is currently streaming on Prime Video.