U Are the Universe
He’s a ten-year veteran of Kosmovtorresurs, the biggest nuclear waste disposal company in Eastern Europe, space trucker Andrukha “Andriy” Melnyk a long way from Khmelnytskyi in the Ukraine as he mans the Obriy on his third four-year round trip from Earth to Callisto, depositing containers which slowly reduce the backlog of more than three billion tons of waste accumulated over the previous century and a half, now disturbed by tectonic activity and requiring alternative solutions, his only companion the automaton Maxim.
At the far point of the mission in the Jovian system with two years until he arrives home, a disaster occurs on Earth; Maxim regretfully telling Andriy that the planet has apparently been destroyed and that fast-moving debris from the shockwave will collide with the Obriy within hours, they shelter behind Callisto but still endure severe damage, Andriy resigned to the fact that he is the last human being alive in the universe until a message is received, a lone French cosmologist further out than even they, observing the atmosphere of Saturn.
A tragedy of profound loneliness and isolation, of finding hope at the end of the world and fighting against the impossible to reach for it, Volodymyr Kravchuk is Andriy and Alexia Depicker is the distant voice of Catherine Boucart in U Are the Universe (Ти – Космос), written and directed by Pavlo Ostrikov with Leonid Poadko performing the voice of Maxim, designed to offer comfort and support on the long trip through the darkness but his programming insufficient for the situation.
Compelled to interact with Andriy even when he has made it clear that he would rather be alone with his thoughts, a man who actively chose to remove himself from human company for years on end, the contact from Catherine is so unexpected that he is unsure how to react, almost fearful of reaching out before he responds less to her as a person than to have a purpose with which to dedicate himself, determined to reach Saturn before her orbit decays, only admitting his growing feelings to himself when he has committed to the one-way trip in a crippled vessel.
With aspects of Moon, Maxim’s ceiling mounted track and digital display expressions of simulated emotion in particular recalling GERTY, Silent Running and of course 2001: A Space Odyssey, one shot of Andriy stalking through the corridors recreating a similar circumstance played out by Dave Bowman, the closest parallel might be The Sound of Her Voice from Deep Space Nine but U Are the Universe has its own identity and voice while confirming Alastair Reynolds’ contention that science fiction is often the art of finding a new way to tell an old story.
The coldness of space unable to diminish the growing warmth between Andriy and Catherine, each becoming the singular point the other focuses on, the only star in their skies, U Are the Universe is uplifting even as each accepts that at most they can only buy a short time, risking all to not be alone at the end of everything, their resources dwindling with no chance of replenishment, no hope of a greater chance but the act symbolic of love and defiance in the face of a cruel and indifferent universe, the spirit of pioneers.
Glasgow Film Festival continues until Sunday 9th March
