TIFF 2024 Review: U Are the Universe – “an impressive accomplishment”

Believing that he is the last human alive after the Earth explodes, Ukrainian space trucker Andriy Melnyk receives a transmission which indicates that there is another survivor.

Isolated in space making routine trips from Earth to Jupiter’s moon Callisto to deliver nuclear waste is trucker Andriy Melnyk who not only has to deal with communications from an obnoxious boss but the horrible jokes from a companion robot.  Everything gets turned upside down when the Earth explodes and Melnyk has to deal with the fact that he may well be the last human alive.  Initially, the reaction is filled with bravado even when an unexpected transmission comes from a French woman named Catherine on a space station which reveals to Melnyk that in fact he is not alone; her pleas for communication cause him to rethink his position and to a make decision to seek her out personally despite the dangers of embarking on such a journey.

A funny moment is when Andriy Melnyk is dancing inebriated due to some medicine that has a high alcohol content and an interesting dramatic shift takes place during a broadcast where he goes from bragging about being the only human left to being depressed by the realization that the rest of his life will be spent alone.  The entire story rests on the shoulders of Volodymyr Kravchuk who is supported by the vocal performances of Leonid Popadko as the robot Maxim and Alexia Depicker as Catherine.  Filmmaker Pavlo Ostrikov has some fun doing a homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey right down to the music and makes use of a concept reminiscent of Cast Away where an inanimate clay face made to represent Catherine stands in as her surrogate when it comes to conversation.

The most impressive visual effects work involves spacewalks and travelling spacecraft as there is an element of life to the frame whereas the shots of the universe feel like a 2D matte painting representation.  An intriguing choice was to give Maxim the equivalent of MS-DOS eyes which actually help the robotic character to emote.  The production is an impressive accomplishment given that ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine did not stop Pavlo Ostrikov from making his cinematic vision a reality.  There is a bittersweetness to the proceedings which probably reflects Ostrikov’s attitude to what is happening to his under attack-homeland.  Even when the odds are insurmountable one might as well die trying as doing nothing is as good as being dead.

The 49th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 5-15, 2024, and for more information visit tiff.net.    

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.