FREM

This a very dismal experimental documentary both artistically and for the audience. The film is shot in inhospitable Antarctica and does not tell any specific story, which means you are probably supposed to find even more meanings and interpretations in it. It takes a lot of effort to sit through the seemingly modest 73 minutes, partly due to the intentionally cacophonic audio track consisting mainly of all sorts of humming, noises and someone breathing. Objectively, not much happens in the film - the introduction consists of a few minutes of home video with narrative commentary, an amateur vivisection of a deer and a bit of abstraction. The remaining 65 minutes are long, wordless shots of Antarctic nature taken from a flying drone filming in different directions. Animals appear here and there, and in the second half a lone scientist appears, and whilst some of the images are visually enchanting and hypnotic, most are just unnecessarily long. A herd of dinosaurs is digitally inserted into one shot, and at the end there is a black hole leading into space (maybe these are metaphorical reminders of the past and future, maybe not). According to the creators, the film reflects the crisis of human identity and the wave of posthumanist thinking caused by the development of technology and artificial intelligence, as well as climate change. I am grateful for this information, because I would never have read it myself. (11/15/2020)