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Ainoa
Austria 2005
produced by Philipp D. Weck for cinevista
directed by Marco Kalantari
starring Simon Licht, Verena Buratti, Gabriela Benesch, Thure Riefenstein, Johannes Stachl, Anton Nouri, Maria Bill, Ramin Dustdar, Florentín Groll, Edmund Jäger, Mathias Kahler, Marlies Ploner, Kari Rakkola, Thomas Nash, Stefan Pohl, Philipp Stix, Florian Wotruba
written by Marco Kalantari, Nina Muck, music by Simon Ravn, visual effects by Klaus Krall
review by Mike Haberfelner
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In 2014, scientist Kerensky (Anton Nouri) invents something that
throws the world as such into World War III, which wipes out most of
earth's population. And yet, somehow Kerensky can buy himself a place in a
bunker when he promises to produce an android that will contact him from
the future to prevent him from making that evil
invention. 2078: Yuri (Simon Licht) and his gang of mercenaries free
android Ainoa (Verena Buratti) from a maximum security prison, but while
Yuri thinks he's only part of the gang doing a job, he actually
turns out to be the chosen one to bring Ainoa to the Oracle
(whatever that is) while his comrades commit collective suicide. Suddenly,
Yuri and Ainoa find themselves on the run from pretty much everyone, from
gouvernment troops (who don't want the present changed) to mutants, and while running they fall in love. Somehow the two
of them manage to evade everyone while lovemaking or make love while evading everyone, I'm not quite
sure which. Ultimately, Ainoa finds the
Oracle in some caves, and it is actually a wormhole in time through which she manages to
call Kerensky to persuade him to not put his invention into action - but
alas she calls too late ... but fortunately she finds another wormhole in
time right next to the first one which takes her call even further back,
and now she reaches Kerensky at the right moment and ... and future is
changed, now Yuri is a noted inventor and Ainoa ... well, she's still an
android, but when the two meet, they seem to remember loving each other in
a different timeline - and love conquers everything, I suppose ... An
interesting failure: This film tries to make an intelligent science
fiction film about time travel - and simply doesn't get the
time-travelling-basics right, instead it repeats large junks of the flawed
timetravel-theory behind the original Terminator (which might be a
great film on many levels but not a thoughtful or even intelligent movie
about time travel), and with its love conquers everything (even parallel
timelines it seems) ending, Ainoa even becomes cheesy and
ridiculous. Add to this an intentionally slow pace which takes much of the
film's effect, and a way too obvious (yet failed) attempt to make
something intellectually challenging, and you are left with ... well, not
a total loss, at least the locations and the camerawork are great and the
cast is adequate, but somehow you just can't shake the feeling this could
have been so much better ...
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