A visually striking portrait of contemporary Ukraine, Valentyn Vasyanovych's Atlantis is a grim albeit piercing exploration of the long-lasting reverberations of war and how they infect the present long after the last bout of violence has dissipated. Beautifully constructed visually and conceptually, Atlantis offers a startling portrait of modernity that effectively challenges vague notions of progress often written by those in a position to reap such rewards brought by globalization and transnational exchange. The film's cold, gray aesthetics manifest an aura of melancholy and stagnation. The tedium and degradation of daily life are palpable throughout this film, and yet at Atlantis' core is a film of optimism. Instilled with a positive purview of human nature, Atlantis recognizes that social-political realities can obfuscate our psyche's penchant for hope. The reciprocal power of individual interaction and general empathy for one and other is not something that is learned or taught by political or economic systems, it is embedded into the social fabric of life. Hope is born out of the ashes of conflict, and born out of Atlantis' dreary aesthetics are lucid moments of ingenuity, connection, and empathy which operate in opposition to the suffocating, static spatiality of a land besieged by strife and conflict. The milieu of instability and confinement is intricately expressed through rigorous visual construction yet Atlantis undercuts its grim atmosphere with slyly optimistic purview, one in which human nature is defined by connection, empathy, and love. A tremendous work of visual grandeur that quietly elucidates our intrinsic desire for connection, even among environments that may seem beyond reproach
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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