Last and First Men

What can we learn from the voice speaking to us from two billion years away? Last And First Men juxtaposes the seminal speculative science fiction story by Olaf Stapledon, a haunting musical score by the late composer and musician Jóhan Jóhannson and filmed images of futuristic, brutalist, otherworldly stone monuments erected during the communist era in the former Yugoslav republics, shot in 16mm black and white by renowned cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen. Tilda Swinton was recruited as narrator, and the result is a fascinating audio-visual work that echoes Alain Resnais' Hiroshima, My Love and Werner Herzog's Lessons of Darkness. This is a cinematic allegory about memory, ideals, and the death of utopia.