Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman won international praise in 2008 for his harrowing and haunting documentary Waltz With Bashir. Rather than relying on the documentary trope of live-action re-enactments, Folmna utilized animation to not only illustrate the memories of those interviewed, but also provide a unique emotional weight to their stories. The results were groundbreaking, and earned Folman notice from the Israeli Film Academy as well as the BAFTA Awards, the Césars, and the Oscars.
Folman is at long last prepping to unveil his feature follow-up, a science-fiction narrative called The Congress. Get a peek at a series of stills from the film below, thanks to Kinopoisk (via The Playlist). As to spoiler warnings, these images are so wild it's impossible to tell if we even need one.
Based on the short story "The Futurological Congress" by Polish author Stanislaw Lem,The Congress stars Robin Wright as a struggling actress who desperately needs a job to support her disabled son, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee. So, she accepts one last job that will make her face famous, but also will make her redundant. She signs on to let a major movie studio scan her image in its entirety, so that they can plant her into any production they like.
Folman's latest also features performances from Paul Giamatti, Harvey Keitel and Danny Huston. Plus, it will offer a blend of live-action and animation, with 70 minutes of the former and 50 minutes of the latter. This genre-blending movie was projected to be completed by early this year, which has many speculating it will debut on the summer festival circuit. Perhaps it will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival as Waltz With Bashir did before it?
