Into Eternity (2010)

A documentary on the safety of nuclear storage.

Director:

Michael Madsen

Writers:

Michael Madsen, Jesper Bergmann

Stars:

Carl Reinhold Bråkenhjelm, Mikael Jensen, Berit Lundqvist

2 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Carl Reinhold Bråkenhjelm
Mikael Jensen
Berit Lundqvist
Michael Madsen	...	Self
Wendla Paile
Esko Roukola
Sami Savonrinne
Timo Seppälä
Juhani Vira
Peter Wikberg
Timo Äikäs	...	Self

Storyline

The subject of "Into Eternity" is Onkalo, the Finnish government's attempt to solve its nuclear waste problem by carving a vast, 4km-deep bunker out of solid rock to bury it in for at least the next 100,000 years. However, the film's focus is bigger. Instead of looking for cover-ups and conspiracies at the site, Madsen uses the existence of Onkalo to create a hauntingly beautiful meditation on the mortality of our civilization, asking the question: what do we say about ourselves when we create something that will outlast everything we understand? That may be the last thing that remains of our society?

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Plot Keywords:

nuclear | storage | radiation | dump | underground | 

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Taglines:

We need you to know that this place should not be disturbed. You should stay away from this place ....then you will be safe.

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Genres:

Documentary

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Did You Know?

Trivia

In addition to high-level waste problems, there are numerous examples of existing disposal sites containing low level waste which have been leaking radiation into the environment. Drigg in the UK and CSM in LeHague, France being just two. No guarantees can be given that waste will remain isolated from the environment over the tens to hundreds of thousands of years. There is no 100 % reliable method to warn future generations about the existence of nuclear waste dumps. An example of where industry plans, to safely store nuclear waste, have been exposed as flawed is the proposed dump site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, US. After nearly 20 years of research and billions of dollars of investment, not one gram of spent fuel has been shipped to the site from nuclear reactors across the US. Major uncertainties in the geological suitability for waste disposal at the site remain. In the meantime, most nuclear power plants in the United States have resorted to the indefinite on-site dry cask storage of waste in steel and concrete casks.

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Quotes

Berit Lundqvist: If you want to take the people of China and India to the same level as the western countries in the next 20 years you'd have to start three new nuclear reactors every day.

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Soundtracks

Lamente For Piano And Orchestra
Written by Arvo Pärt
Performed by Aleksei Lubimov, Andrey Boreyko, and
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra

User Reviews

Moody and haunting with music to match - gives an interesting feeling

If you look only at the subject matter which is building a long 3 mile tunnels down 500 meters into bed rock it sounds more like a theme that you would see on a television series like mega structures filled with high-tech, how did they do it kind of thing. Here, however, the technology to do this project is hardly mentioned as digging deep holes in the ground such are used in mining has gone on a very long time. Here instead we see more of a scene about timelessness and about the unknown. Of course we have a pretty remarkable project being constructed and then filled over a 100 year period named Onkalo. As no one will be involved in both the start and the completion of the project when finished, the plan is to abandon the structure and hope that no one will attempt to enter for at least 100,000 years. The deep moodiness of the film with its haunting music and barren forest scenes with gray landscape tries to force you into a mood of the vastness of time. To put this into perspective, the pyramids were built about 4000 years ago, though we think cave dwellers lived 30,000 years ago and maybe humans have actually been around for 100,000 years. But will they even exist as long as this storage facility is supposed to? No one knows. When it is sealed in 2120 do we just forget about it or do you warn people about it? Will warning people make them want to explore? Will there still be humans like we are, or will they be much different as we are to Neanderthal man. These are some of the things discussed in the film. It is short, only one hour and 15 min. The director likes long sweeping zooming in traveling shots. This work definitely gives you a feeling that you don't get from many films, but one not easy to describe. Near the end of the film as two workers are just walking into one section of the tunnel it in itself is totally non-remarkable and could be shot in any mine or cave in the world but the mood of the scene and the music behind is effective and you get some feeling that it is actually quite difficult to create something you hope will last 100,000 years. A unique film and the mood it imparts makes it worth more than one viewing.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [France]

Country:

Denmark Finland Sweden Italy

Language:

English Swedish Finnish

Release Date:

6 January 2010 (Denmark)

Also Known As:

Into Eternity

Filming Locations:

Finland

Box Office

Budget:

EUR668,952 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,530, 6 February 2011

Gross USA:

$55,366

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$55,366

Company Credits

Production Co:

Atmo Media Network, Film i Väst, Global HDTV

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1