While being one of a kind, Pavlo Ostrikov’s debut feature, U are the Universe, calls to mind Spike Jonze’s Her and Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy, in an oblique way. Like Her, U are the Universe is also a sci-fi romance between a space trucker and the disembodied voice of another space traveller and it is akin to the Before trilogy in being propelled by incessant conversations between the two. The Ukraine-Belgium co-production premiered in the Discovery section at the recently concluded Toronto International Film Festival.
Set in an unspecified future, the film works with loneliness and the search for love as its focal point while keeping the expected mawkishness at bay. In fact, it starts off on a rather droll note. Andriy aka Andrukha (Volodymyr Kravchuk), employed at East Europe’s largest nuclear waste disposal company, is on a four-year mission in space to dump the trash in Jupiter’s abandoned moon Callisto.
Giving him company in the cargo spaceship Obriy is Robot Maxim (Leonid Popadko), in charge of taking care of Andriy’s food and other requirements, keeping him entertained with his bad jokes and helping in navigating the ship. The mood stays balmy as Andriy revels in a good life in the ship equipped with a gym, lounge and kitchen, among other facilities. Sculpting and vinyl records fill his time.
Things take a turn as the earth explodes, leaving Andriy as the last human afloat in the universe. He makes light of it initially with the glaring irony in a s.
