“The Once and Future,” a hybrid project directed by Yeo Siew Hua winner of Locarno’s top prize in 2018 with “A Land Imagined,” will open at the upcoming Singapore Festival of Arts (SIFA).
Edson Sidonie’s Buenos Aires-based Bikini Films and Roger García’s General Film Services in the U:S: have teamed for this multi-platform project which will be made as a feature, opera and performance show.
Announced as an “expanded cinema experience,” the story is set in the near future, when the planet has become unsustainable and humankind prepares for a planetary exodus to escape extinction.
Unable to withstand the voyage, people must leave their bodies behind and upload the totality of human experiences into something called The Labyrinth. The human race is finally just one. All our memories have been preserved, but with no one to remember them.
Eugene Birman has scored the title. Live performances come courtesy of musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, forming the Zemin! Ensemble Berlin. Young vocalist Anandi Bhattacharya gives voice to the Artificial Intelligence, who will guide the audience through this philosophical journey and multi-sensorial experience whose laser light sculptures help bringing to life the film on screen.
“We expect to present the show in both Asia and Europe. I believe audiences on those continents will understand and appreciate the cultural mix, the idea of the journey and mythologies’ created from the lives and dreams of ordinary people,” Garcia told Variety. García is also responsible for the project concept.
Roman Kasseroller, whose credits include Justin Lerner’s “Cadejo Blanco,” has served as DP for the movie.
“The Once and Future” was shot entirely in Argentina during the pandemic. “I’m proud to say it is the first time we have this kind of collaboration between our two countries,” said Sidonie, adding: “It’s really a work about voyages and also our memories, examining what really makes us human, a very modern reflection on very urgent issues.” Helmer-scribe Martín Rodríguez Redondo (“Marylin”) exec-produces as well.
Sidonie is behind Juan Pablo Félix’s “Karnawal,” which won a First Feature Platino Award this month, as well as “The White Room,” the new project by Anita Peterbarg, director of Viggo Mortensen starrer “Everybody Has a Plan.” Sold by Beta Film, “Karnawal” has recently been released in France and has just been sold to Spain’s El Viaje Films.
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