After The Dark (2013 – Previously known as The Philosophers)
I am not entirely sure what genre I’d put this film into, I don’t think ‘Fantastic’ is a genre everyone will agree to but that should be it’s place.
After The Dark is set in a classroom in Jakarta, international students, a rag tag team of highly developed, intellectually advanced senior year students – Philosophy students (go figure)
“You know what Shakespeare said about punctuality?
Better to be 3hours too early
Than one minute too late”
If you are a logical thinker, outside the box wonderer, a questioner of the existence of happenings, one not to be defined as settling in for the ‘norm’, then this film will blow your socks out of the water. The film has no famous presence, well not that I could see anywhere – I couldn’t find any famous actors/actresses within but yet, it grasps you immediately. The tentative soundtrack, the soft cooling tone of each character while representing their actual and scenario-esque individuality…splendid!
A series of iterations, a post apocalyptic Earth, one set to challenge your inner intellect, really stimulate your mind in which there is only one true solution but in an attempt to cover all other grey areas, every possibility must be explored. Yes, even indulging the wild card.
This is the ‘final thought experiment’ – a global cataclysm, a bunch of you are the last survivors on Earth, you are all experts in your field but with a group of 21 and a bunker that could only house 10 ergo limiting food and oxygen ; you have to decide whose life is more valuable to the repopulation of the human race.
‘Ready…Set…Think‘
You take turns in different scenarios, committing to reason, until you find the best solution to all problematic areas. Is a Painter really needed in a new world? What use is a Mime to the repopulation scheme if there is no laughter or art in the world? Should a Poet with no equipment still be classified as one and moreover why should this bullet not penetrate his skull with the others being left to die. Why should we allow you to survive in the bunker instead of allowing the the air outside to peel the skin off your tender body?
Prove your worth!
This film has it all, it takes you places, it makes you think, it makes you question WHY? It counters some of societies problematic areas too – Love, Homosexuality , Murder, Drugs and so much more.
I bought a book on Philosophy after watching this film and I have recommended it to everyone I know, who I think have the same in-depth way of thinking as I do. I recommend you watch it with an open mind, crank up the volume and really experience.
It is a thought experiment…..but in real life.