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Into Eternity

You might say Michael Madsen, the Danish director of this film, is an underground artist. One of his conceptual projects involved installing a sound diffusion system underneath Copenhagen’s Town Hall Square. But INTO ETERNITY goes much deeper. It’s a stunning visual and aural work that documents the construction of the world’s first permanent repository for high-level radioactive waste, currently being hewn out of solid rock in remote Finland. The site consists of a huge system of underground storage tunnels that must last through natural and man-made disasters for 100,000 years, until the waste is no longer toxic. As Madsen narrates, his somber tone evoking suppressed hysteria, Finnish and Swedish authorities cheerfully explain their nuclear business. One of the most intriguing issues scientists are considering is: How do we communicate with beings in an unimaginable future? Clearly, signs reading “Keep Out” won’t do. And, if they're anything at all like us, by warning future humanoids away from the death zone, we guarantee they’ll want to poke into it. INTO ETERNITY is a bizarre real-life horror film, a chilling tale that will have you pondering the madness wrought by mankind. (In English, Swedish, and Finnish with subtitles) –B.B.