A thoughtful, poetical and at times astonishingly beautiful meditation on the state of humankind and the world we live in, Marc Bauder’s film is in essence a cry for help on behalf of our world, as well as raising the question of what future generations will think of us within a historical context.
In choosing to focus on the thoughts of six very different – but equally inspiring – individuals, Bauder’s film raises questions a-plenty as he focusses on the major issues facing us, but it also hints at the possibility of hope.
The title is based on a book that writer, thinker and presenter Roger Willemsen was working on shortly before his death in 2016, which aimed to look at our present times from a future perspective. His words begin the film: “We were the ones who knew, but did not understand, full of information but lacking insight, brimming with knowledge, but lacking experience. So we just kept forging ahead, unstopped by ourselves.”
Producer, writer and director Bauder tracks his interviewees from the depths of the ocean into outer space, and from robotics laboratories through to the old House of Slaves on Gorée Island in Senegal, and while some reflect with anger and frustration about the state of the world they also want to try and offer solutions.
The six important contemporary thinkers and scientists are Alexander Gerst (a German astronaut), Dennis Snower (UK-based economist), Matthieu Ricard (French molecular biologist and Buddhist monk), Sylvia Earle (American oceanologist), Felwine Sarr (Senegalese economist, sociologist and philosopher) and Janina Loh (Japan-based German philosopher and critical post-humanist).
The sheer mesmerising beauty of the ocean and the magnificent vista of the planet as seen from space offer a real sense of scale at the start of the film, while Sylvia Earle ponders on the fact that while only three people have ventured seven miles down in the ocean’s depths, many more have been seven miles above the planet.
On the other hand monk Matthieu Ricard discusses the need for humans to aspire to be cerebrally free. “Real freedom is to navigate where you want to go…to master the boat…master your mind and not to be a slave to your thoughts,” he says.
Dennis Snowers tells an audience that his optimism comes from research and that “compassion can be learned – like reading and writing,” while formative African thinker Felwine Sarr asks: “How do we create an ‘us’ with people who don’t want to?” Janina Loh is seen in full mask and PPE walking the shoreline near the site of the Fukushima nuclear accident and also later visiting a robotics laboratory to debate on the essence of being human, and whether the human notion of unpredictability can ever be replicated.
Despite the gloomier aspects of their deliberations over the state of the planet, all have positive moments. This is reflected at times in some truly beautiful visual moments, especially when the camera heads underwater. As oceanologist Sylvia Earle simply says: “Remember what a gift it is to be alive.”
Germany, 2021, 114mins
Dir/scr: Marc Bauder
Production: bauderfilm, Hanfgarn & Ufer Filmproduktion
Producer: Marc Bauder
Cinematography: Borres Weiffenbach
Editor: Stefan Stabenow
Music: Thomas Kurstner, Sebastian Vogel
Sales: Films Boutique
