Vanishing Waves
A bold, visionary work of science fiction cinema that recalls the genre in its cerebral 1960s and ’70s golden age, just as it simultaneously forges new territory with its unique fusion of emotional melodrama and hallucinatory widescreen spectacle, Vanishing Waves is one of the most accomplished and distinctive European films in recent memory. The second solo feature from Lithuanian director Kristina Buozyte, following her acclaimed 2008 debut The Collectress, the 2012 production Vanishing Waves confirms Buozyte as a major young talent whose frequently breathtaking visual and technical gifts are thankfully also matched by her interest in complex characterizations, adventurous narratives, and challenging themes.
Her new film is a science fiction romance that is equally occupied by the erotic as well as the fantastic. Lukas (Marius Jampolskis) is assisting a scientific research team by functioning as a patient in a series of heavily monitored (and medicated) sensory deprivation experiments wherein he is attempting to make some form of contact with the subject, Aurora (Jurga Jutaite), a young woman who has been locked in a comatose state for some time. Doctors initially hope for just a vague reaffirmation of consciousness, but the experiment takes an unexpected twist when Lukas and Aurora actually develop a strong psychic link in their mutually altered forms of consciousness…and their link quickly evolves into a romantic, sexually charged relationship. As Lukas hides this data from his researchers, he and Aurora meet secretly and passionately in a series of surreal dreamscapes created by their collective minds, but their union is tragically doomed to collapse around them. Exploring the tantalizing possibilities of forming a true, all-encompassing bond with one’s lover, Vanishing Waves is hypnotic, erotic, wholly engrossing, and wildly thought-provoking cinema that transcends any perceived limitations of the science fiction genre, becoming one of the year’s most provocative films in the process.