This concept — members of the human race from two billion years in the future contact their brethren from the past, that is us — is an intriguing one by itself. A potential viewer who has never seen the trailer would assume it to be a flashy VFX based sci-fi film with lots of futuristic CG images. I knew it was an indie film, so didn't expect much CGI. However, the film surprised me even then. It's more like a video essay with almost still imagery and a background voice (belongs to the future human, voiced by Tilda Swinton). The film is inspired by the book of the same name, a 1930 science fiction novel.

The future human tells us that the human race is on the verge of extinction, you know, after surviving two billion years more. Which is kind of funny because, the way we are headed, I don't think we'll survive 100 years more. Climate change alone will wipe us out. Then there's the real problem, our home star — the sun. Which is expanding and at some point the earth will be entirely unhabitable. Even if we survive climate change, we can't survive the sun's expansion.

Now, if, and that's a big if, our scientists can think of a way to escape the earth with the entire species or move the earth to somewhere else like they do in The Wandering Earth (not a terrible film if you're into cheesy action flicks), that's another thing. I'd bet on wormholes. There are a lot of similar planets in our galaxy, that might be able to support human lives along with other animals. It wouldn't be too bad to chill on Keplar B452b.

Now, in the film, the narrator tells us, the current humans about our future history. Our history is their past. We learn from her that they solved the sun problem once, evolved for many, many long years, have superbrains, can contact each other telepathically, and their infancy lasts for a thousand years. They're practically immortal. Except that the sun is about to turn red, wiping out anything within its range.

This is a philosophical cinema. What would mean to be human billions of years forward and how of humanity we know now would still be recognizable is a question I asked myself. And then the bigger question ultimately arises, what does it mean to be human? The film doesn't try to answer it. It only projects a possible route we might take.

The entire cinematography is footage of some brutalist structures from Yugoslavia from the '60s. While they meant something else originally, the filmmaker used them as strange structures made by the future humans. And they do look the part! Take a look at some of the screenshot I took from the film.

To complement such bizarre, desolate scenes, the filmmaker Jóhann Jóhannsson composed the entire score (he's a composer) which is always present in the background, making the film hauntingly beautiful. Tilda Swinton's unwavering steady voice makes it all the more unearthly.

It's a shame the filmmaker died two years prior to the release of the film. I'd love to see more of his work.