A few villagers find a shed in the jungle at the edge of their village. Not unlike how they find that monolith in 2001. The shed becomes the center of attention. There is a strange humming sound coming from it. The villagers saw this as an omen. They gather around and set-up a watch party to look over the shed in an attempt to find out what’s going on. They are a simple people with their superstitions. Is this a punishment from their gods? Will it go away if they honor the gods with animal meat?

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Let’s jump to somewhere else. A young, reticent sailor roams around on a cruise ship. He frequently misses his shifts. And sometimes you can’t find him anywhere on the entire vessel. Where does he go?

Our sailor appears in an apartment far from the water. A woman lives there.

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Turns out—the ship has a door that connects the ship with the woman’s apartment. Call it magic or a sci-fi portal. The entire ship is one big portal-hive. Our sailor is a master at using these.

All of these places and stories are interconnected. As you probably guessed already, that shed in the jungle is also related to the story.

Even though it does use common tropes to look alluring, the film is not a mind-blowing one, nor does it try to act clever. Forget the twists. It’s simplistic, doesn’t bring much to the table other than the story itself and some beautiful sceneries. It’s one of those indie sci-fi/fantasy films that are usually overlooked but deserve to be seen more than some of the blockbusters.

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I found it terribly slow in it’s pacing, even though I liked its subtle mystery vibe that was persistent throughout the film. Maybe if the director had cut some of the long takes and made it more even looking and shorter, I would have enjoyed it a bit more. Having said that, the frames are not bad to look at. Sometimes I need calm, soothing films like this to bring about variations in my watching habit. It’s the debut feature by the director Alex Piperno. Not too bad to be honest.

I’m giving it a 6 out of 10.

Here's the trailer -