01-16-2022, 05:02 PM
Best New IDU Film
The Edge of Disaster
Country: Lauchenoiria
Year: 2021
Director: Rico Olmos
Runtime: 160 mins
Language: Spanish
Synopsis:
The Edge of Disaster is set in a parallel universe where the forests are gone, where industry runs wild and where climate activists are routinely rounded up and shot. The plot follows a young man called Andre who works in a coal mining facility in Costeno, which in this universe is horribly polluted and dangerous to live in. He meets a woman on his rare, once-a-month day off while he’s at the local pub in his town, owned by the company, drinking beer branded with the company name. The woman, Beatrice, asks him if he’ll do her a favour and offers him a small fortune in reward. He accepts, and she takes him to her home, revealing herself to be the daughter of the mine owner.
The favour is to pretend to be her boyfriend at a party, as she fears her father discovering that she’s a lesbian and is dating one of his servants, Ingrid. But while he is preparing, one of the family servants, Juan, slips into the room and reveals a dark secret. His boss, Beatrice’s father Silvestre, is planning to test an experimental new technique for ensuring worker loyalty, removing their ability to leave once and for all. If he activates the system, it will be too late, and he plans to do this at the party. Andre, as Beatrice’s “boyfriend” will be allowed into the room with the controls, and has to prevent it being switched on.
The party begins and Beatrice keeps close to Andre to instruct him on how to behave at rich people’s functions. They can’t go outside as the indoor air is filtered for safety & rich people don’t go out without filter masks. As the party progresses, one door remains locked to all guests. Eventually they’re invited into the room which is set up like a stage with controls in the middle. Andre looks around but Beatrice won’t leave him. Her father begins his speech, broadcasting it via cameras all around the room to the world to hail his new invention. Andre edges closer and closer to the controls but he’s spotted.
His boss laughs at him and claims he’ll be the first subject of the new invention. He’s dragged in front of the lights and cameras but just before the system can be turned on, Beatrice is invited to join her father on the stage. She stands, looking callously at Andre but then, when she speaks, she decries her father’s invention and reveals a gun. She shoots the control panel and chaos ensues. Andre escapes and begins knocking over the candles on the tables so that the building goes up in flames.
Beatrice and Andre both make their separate escapes, running across the polluted barren fields, struggling to breathe in the rotten air. They meet up with a group of workers who’ve been plotting to bring down the government and they celebrate their victory. The film ends with an ominous shot of the cooling ashes of Beatrice’s house, with the control panel sitting in the middle, seemingly undamaged apart from a small bullet-sized hole in the side.
Starring:
German Ortiz as Andre Valiente
Olimpia Pardo as Beatrice Martí
Agata Aguado as Ingrid Felix
Celino Rubio as Silvestre Martí
Fabricio Hernandez as Juan Delacruz
Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film
Conflict Inevitable
Country: Lauchenoiria
Year: 2021
Director: Armando Espino
Language: Spanish/English
Synopsis: Conflict Inevitable is an investigation into the factors which contributed to the outbreak of the conflict now known as the Second Lauchenoirian Civil War in 2018. The documentary focuses on the political tensions in Lauchenoiria in the run-up to the conflict, beginning with the legalisation of capitalist political parties in 1993 in the wake of the Vertranskan conflict of the early 90s, up until the hostage situation in Melissa City of February 2018. Using unearthed footage from the events studied combined with present-day interviews, the documentary argues that a perfect storm was brewing in Lauchenoiria long before Kerlian intervention to trigger conflict.
The film argues that when the Communist government in 1993 chose to act before a revolt, to sacrifice some of their power in order to prevent war at that juncture, they merely delayed an inevitable conflict. The lack of constitutional changes other than the lifting of party political restrictions in 1993 led to a precarious scenario where the transition to democracy was carried out while allowing those who had been part of the dictatorship to remain in their roles and have great political influence for years to come.
Therefore when those in the dictatorship truly lost power, after the capitalist referendum of 2017, the delayed conflict necessarily came to fruition as the fragile democracy no longer benefitted those who had held the power behind the scenes for the last two and a half decades. It was therefore only logical that the Anarcho-Communist Collective of Lauchenoiria would show their frustrations through violence, which then had a domino effect that the Kerlians took advantage of. It was the lack of reckoning with our past which doomed Lauchenoira.
Reactions: While the consensus in Lauchenoiria is that the documentary is exceptionally well-researched, with good pacing and poses fascinating and pertinent questions, there is still debate around the conclusions made. Extremist political party Lauchenoiria First has criticised the film for downplaying the role of Kerlian sleeper agents in triggering the conflict while others studying the war are beginning to agree that no one factor caused the war, and rather it was a multitude of different events coalescing together in an unfortunate way.
The Edge of Disaster
Country: Lauchenoiria
Year: 2021
Director: Rico Olmos
Runtime: 160 mins
Language: Spanish
Synopsis:
The Edge of Disaster is set in a parallel universe where the forests are gone, where industry runs wild and where climate activists are routinely rounded up and shot. The plot follows a young man called Andre who works in a coal mining facility in Costeno, which in this universe is horribly polluted and dangerous to live in. He meets a woman on his rare, once-a-month day off while he’s at the local pub in his town, owned by the company, drinking beer branded with the company name. The woman, Beatrice, asks him if he’ll do her a favour and offers him a small fortune in reward. He accepts, and she takes him to her home, revealing herself to be the daughter of the mine owner.
The favour is to pretend to be her boyfriend at a party, as she fears her father discovering that she’s a lesbian and is dating one of his servants, Ingrid. But while he is preparing, one of the family servants, Juan, slips into the room and reveals a dark secret. His boss, Beatrice’s father Silvestre, is planning to test an experimental new technique for ensuring worker loyalty, removing their ability to leave once and for all. If he activates the system, it will be too late, and he plans to do this at the party. Andre, as Beatrice’s “boyfriend” will be allowed into the room with the controls, and has to prevent it being switched on.
The party begins and Beatrice keeps close to Andre to instruct him on how to behave at rich people’s functions. They can’t go outside as the indoor air is filtered for safety & rich people don’t go out without filter masks. As the party progresses, one door remains locked to all guests. Eventually they’re invited into the room which is set up like a stage with controls in the middle. Andre looks around but Beatrice won’t leave him. Her father begins his speech, broadcasting it via cameras all around the room to the world to hail his new invention. Andre edges closer and closer to the controls but he’s spotted.
His boss laughs at him and claims he’ll be the first subject of the new invention. He’s dragged in front of the lights and cameras but just before the system can be turned on, Beatrice is invited to join her father on the stage. She stands, looking callously at Andre but then, when she speaks, she decries her father’s invention and reveals a gun. She shoots the control panel and chaos ensues. Andre escapes and begins knocking over the candles on the tables so that the building goes up in flames.
Beatrice and Andre both make their separate escapes, running across the polluted barren fields, struggling to breathe in the rotten air. They meet up with a group of workers who’ve been plotting to bring down the government and they celebrate their victory. The film ends with an ominous shot of the cooling ashes of Beatrice’s house, with the control panel sitting in the middle, seemingly undamaged apart from a small bullet-sized hole in the side.
Starring:
German Ortiz as Andre Valiente
Olimpia Pardo as Beatrice Martí
Agata Aguado as Ingrid Felix
Celino Rubio as Silvestre Martí
Fabricio Hernandez as Juan Delacruz
Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film
Conflict Inevitable
Country: Lauchenoiria
Year: 2021
Director: Armando Espino
Language: Spanish/English
Synopsis: Conflict Inevitable is an investigation into the factors which contributed to the outbreak of the conflict now known as the Second Lauchenoirian Civil War in 2018. The documentary focuses on the political tensions in Lauchenoiria in the run-up to the conflict, beginning with the legalisation of capitalist political parties in 1993 in the wake of the Vertranskan conflict of the early 90s, up until the hostage situation in Melissa City of February 2018. Using unearthed footage from the events studied combined with present-day interviews, the documentary argues that a perfect storm was brewing in Lauchenoiria long before Kerlian intervention to trigger conflict.
The film argues that when the Communist government in 1993 chose to act before a revolt, to sacrifice some of their power in order to prevent war at that juncture, they merely delayed an inevitable conflict. The lack of constitutional changes other than the lifting of party political restrictions in 1993 led to a precarious scenario where the transition to democracy was carried out while allowing those who had been part of the dictatorship to remain in their roles and have great political influence for years to come.
Therefore when those in the dictatorship truly lost power, after the capitalist referendum of 2017, the delayed conflict necessarily came to fruition as the fragile democracy no longer benefitted those who had held the power behind the scenes for the last two and a half decades. It was therefore only logical that the Anarcho-Communist Collective of Lauchenoiria would show their frustrations through violence, which then had a domino effect that the Kerlians took advantage of. It was the lack of reckoning with our past which doomed Lauchenoira.
Reactions: While the consensus in Lauchenoiria is that the documentary is exceptionally well-researched, with good pacing and poses fascinating and pertinent questions, there is still debate around the conclusions made. Extremist political party Lauchenoiria First has criticised the film for downplaying the role of Kerlian sleeper agents in triggering the conflict while others studying the war are beginning to agree that no one factor caused the war, and rather it was a multitude of different events coalescing together in an unfortunate way.
LIDUN President 2024 | she/her | Puppets: Kerlile, Glanainn, Yesteria, Zongongia, Zargothrax