Atlantis
Film poster
Directed byValentyn Vasyanovych
Written byValentyn Vasyanovych
Produced by
  • Iya Myslytska
  • Vladimir Yatsenko
  • Valentyn Vasyanovych
Starring
  • Andriy Rymaruk
  • Liudmyla Bileka
  • Vasyl Antoniak
CinematographyValentyn Vasyanovych
Edited byValentyn Vasyanovych
Distributed byArthouse Traffic
Release date
  • 4 September 2019 (2019-09-04) (Venice)
Running time
106 minutes
CountryUkraine
LanguageUkrainian

Atlantis (Ukrainian: Атлантида) is a 2019 Ukrainian dystopian[1] post-apocalyptic[2] film directed by Valentyn Vasyanovych.[3] It tells the story of a former soldier struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder in a near-future Ukraine, following a war with Russia.[4]

It received positive critical reviews overall[5] and won the award for Best Film in the Horizons section of the 76th Venice International Film Festival.[6] It was selected as the Ukrainian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.[7] Atlantis received new attention three years after its release with the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which the film had fictionally depicted the aftermath of.[4]

Plot

The story follows Sergiy (Rymaryk) a retired soldier with PTSD trying to navigate life in Eastern Ukraine.[8] It takes place in 2025, one year after the end of the war with Russia.[9] He works at a smelter with another veteran and friend, Ivan, both ostracized by other workers blaming them for fighting in the war that devastated the region. Sergiy and Ivan still train much like the war has not ended, dressing in combat uniforms and competing in high-stress target shooting. Ivan commits suicide in a smelting pot, and the factory is shut down shortly afterwards due to economic liberalization rendering it nonprofitable. Sergiy then finds himself in a new job driving a water truck and delivering to areas where pollution from the war has made local sources unpotable.[10] He has trouble adapting to his new life until he meets Katya (Bileka), previously an archaeologist who now works as a humanitarian activist for the Black Tulip Mission, a volunteer organization exhuming and identifying the war dead.[10][11] Sergiy is offered the opportunity to escape his situation, after saving a member of an environmental NGO from a mine, but it is implied in the conclusion that he has decided to remain with the Black Tulip Mission. The movie is bookended by stylized scenes shot by thermal camera, one of the killing of a captured sniper (later exhumed in the movie) and the other of Sergiy and Katya hugging at the conclusion of the film.

Production

None of the roles in this movie were played by actors, but rather by veterans, volunteers, and soldiers.[12] One of the main roles was played by Andriy Rymaryk,[13] a former military scout, who went through the war in Donbas and currently works at Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian NGO that helps Ukrainian soldiers through crowdfunding. Paramedic Liudmyla Bileka and volunteer Vasyl Antoniak were also in the film.

Photography predominantly occurred in Mariupol, from January to March 2018.[14]

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 36 reviews, and an average rating of 7.7/10.[5] On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the film has a score of 85 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[15]

In a positive review, Richard Abele of The Los Angeles Times wrote, "we’re fortunate to have artists like Vasyanovych to show us what’s dazzling, strange, tragic, comic, touching and eventually optimistic about the way forward."[16] Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal called the film "literally and figuratively visionary".[17] Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com gave it three-and-a-half stars out of four, noting that while Atlantis was "by far one of the bleakest films to come along in quite some time," it "never becomes too unbearable to watch".[18]

In another positive review, Glenn Kenny of The New York Times compared the film's long, static takes to early work by US directors Stanley Kubrick and Jim Jarmusch.[10] In one of the film's few negative reviews, Lee Jutton of Film Inquiry noted the film's "admirable intentions" but stated that the long, slow takes left her "as cold as the barren Ukrainian plains depicted in the film."[19]

It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.[20] At the 76th Venice International Film Festival, the film won the award for Best Film in the Horizons section.[6] It was selected as the Ukrainian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.[7]

The film's subject matter – an all-out war between Ukraine and Russia, in which Ukraine is able to hold back a theoretically superior Russian force – was seen by some critics and audiences as "prophetic" when the Russo-Ukrainian War sharply escalated the year after the film's release with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[4][21]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Atlantis". TIFF.
  2. ↑ "Review: Atlantis". Cineuropa - the best of european cinema.
  3. ↑ "New Brussels-based outfit BFF boards Valentyn Vasyanovych's 'Atlantis'". ScreenDaily. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 "'Atlantis' envisaged the aftermath of a Russia-Ukraine war". The Economist. 21 March 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  5. 1 2 "Atlantis". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  6. 1 2 Anderson, Ariston (7 September 2019). "Venice: Todd Phillips' 'Joker' Wins Golden Lion, Roman Polanski Wins Silver Lion". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
  7. 1 2 "Film 'Atlantis' has more chances for Oscars than Ukrainian nominees of past years - head of Ukrainian Oscar Committee". Interfax Ukraine. 24 September 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  8. ↑ Francisco, Eric. "'Atlantis': Netflix release date, trailer, plot, reviews for Ukraine's buzzy sci-fi movie". Inverse. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  9. ↑ Harvey, Dennis (16 September 2019). "Film Review: 'Atlantis'". Variety. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  10. 1 2 3 Kenny, Glenn (21 January 2021). "'Atlantis' Review: A Bleak Apocalypse Love Story". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  11. ↑ Lattanzio, Ryan (22 January 2021). "'Atlantis' Review: An Electrifying Post-Apocalyptic Vision from the Cinematographer of 'The Tribe'". IndieWire. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  12. ↑ "Фільм про повернення Донбасу переміг на Венеційському кінофестивалі — ІА "Вчасно"". Фільм про повернення Донбасу переміг на Венеційському кінофестивалі. 8 September 2019.
  13. ↑ "АНДРІЙ РИМАРУК: ФІЛЬМ "АТЛАНТИДА" - ЦІЛКОМ РЕАЛЬНЕ МАЙБУТНЄ ДОНБАСУ".
  14. ↑ Свобода, Радіо (12 September 2019). "Український фільм "Атлантида" переміг у другій за значимістю програмі Венеційського фестивалю". Радіо Свобода.
  15. ↑ "ATLANTIS". Metacritic. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  16. ↑ Abele, Richard (21 January 2021). "Review: 'Atlantis' discovers optimism deep in the darkness of dystopia". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  17. ↑ Morgenstern, Joe (21 January 2021). "'Atlantis' Review: Sunken Souls". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  18. ↑ Sobczynski, Peter (29 January 2021). "Reviews: Atlantis". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  19. ↑ Jutton, Lee (19 January 2021). "ATLANTIS: A Post-Apocalyptic Misfire". Film Inquiry. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  20. ↑ "Toronto Adds The Aeronauts, Mosul, Seberg, & More To Festival Slate". Deadline. 13 August 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  21. ↑ Gilles, Jim (4 April 2022). "Vasyanovych's Atlantis: A Prophetic Look at War-Torn Ukraine Before the Current Conflict". The Hollywood Times. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
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