{"id":47864,"date":"2025-05-23T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=47864"},"modified":"2025-05-23T15:08:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T19:08:48","slug":"u-are-the-universe-siff2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/23\/u-are-the-universe-siff2025\/","title":{"rendered":"U ARE THE UNIVERSE [SIFF2025]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A space trucker is suddenly the last human in the universe\u2026 Until he receives a distress call and a surprise connection from Saturn in U are the Universe, an incredible Ukrainian sci-fi flick from writer-director Pavlo Ostrikov.<\/span><\/p>\n

Andriy (played with soul by Volodymyr Kravhcuk) is a lonely man in the giant loneliness of space. He\u2019s alone on a massive ship on its way out to Jupiter. Running out of space on Earth, he\u2019s been hired to dump waste onto a moon, far away from home. He messes it up and is worried he\u2019ll lose this job like he\u2019s lost everything else. But it all comes to nothing as those back home on Earth have messed it up big time. An Earth-shattering Kaboom destroys the planet, leaving him alone in the universe. Until a voice calls out from a space station orbiting Saturn, giving a purpose and a reason to live.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be frank, U Are the Universe isn\u2019t the most original film. Many of its elements are cobbled together from a variety of sci-fi sources. A lone space-person has to use ingenuity to solve various scrapes (such as the remains of Earth hurtling towards his ship!) from the Martian or Gravity; a sarcastic robot Max-5 helper on a track, straight from Duncan Jones\u2019s underseen Moon. I could go on, but I won\u2019t. U are the Universe is deftly aware of its influences, even coyly referencing 2001\u2019s famous music cue of Thus Spoke Zathurustra.\u00a0 I can easily move past the \u201cLeo pointing meme\u201d with how well it all works. I adored U Are the Universe.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Familiar or not, U Are the Universe is an engaging, heart-pulling film. How does it use those known elements to add a new drive\u2014one of unexpected connection and, dare I say, love? Writer-director Pavlo Ostrikov crafts a wonder of a film, building from a practical-effect familiarity to provide a strong script of connection through an amazing physical and voice-only performance. It\u2019s a film of love, of the genres from which it pulls, and in themes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Andriy, believing himself alone (and finally accomplishing something as being the last human; perhaps not the record one would want to have, but gotta take what you\u2019re given), transmits a message proclaiming himself \u201cCaptain Galaxy.\u201d To his surprise, an answer comes from the void. Catherine, a French scientist, is similarly alone on a space station orbiting Saturn. Thus, given a purpose, Andriy perks up, and they begin to connect via a flurry of messages as they begin to know one another, all via voice and text. It\u2019s a sweet romantic comedy, nestled into a \u201cgrappling with everything coming to an end\u201d sci-fi film.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Damned if it doesn\u2019t work. The connection the two create feels real, with a chemistry and natural affection. The situation outside may be dire, but Ostrikov\u2019s script avoids building their connection to a false melodrama or sentimentality. Take away the \u201cwe\u2019re the only ones left\u201d set up, and you\u2019d have a heart-warming romance; they joke, they flirt, they connect, they even have the standard misunderstandings that threaten the burgeoning relationship. U are the Universe is a unique way to work the plot. When we feel that attraction, that love, that draws us to another person, the rest of the world can fall away, feeling like all of existence is just the two of us. How literal for Andriy and Catherine. It\u2019s genuine.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jupiter-sized kuos to Volodymyr Kravchuk as Andriy. As essentially the sole human on screen, whether it works or not is on his shoulders. As he goes about surviving on his beautifully designed, lived-in style ship (random buttons and flashing lights – MODELS! Whoo hoo practical work!), he embodies all the loneliness, surprise, fear, and ultimately hope of the connection to the voice on the other side of the radio. It\u2019s a remarkable performance; Kravhuck is an actor who finds an amazing sense of character with so many small bits. Leonid Popadko as Max-5 and Alexia Depicker as Catherine may be only voices, but they complete a trio of perfection.\u00a0 Especially Catherine, as noted, their back and forth has an easy flow. She\u2019s more than merely a foil, but we know Catherine well ourselves through Depicker\u2019s commanding voice performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

U are the Universe is an unexpectedly poignant film. While writing and pre-production occurred long before, the Russian invasion of Ukraine started not long after filming commenced. A film where our home is destroyed by bombing while the same is occurring around the filming makes the film hit harder, even if unintentional at the onset. It\u2019s the beauty of finding connection as everything collapses around you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pavlo Ostrikov\u2019s U are the Universe is an astounding sci-fi film with a twist of the universal feeling of connection. I loved the characters, their chemistry, and the practical 70s-style sci-fi sets around them. Fantastic.<\/span><\/p>\n

U are the Universe is presented through the Seattle International Film Festival, running in-person screenings May 15th \u2013 25th and selected online screenings March 26th \u2013 June 1st. See <\/b>Siff.net\/festival<\/b><\/a>\u00a0for more.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A space trucker is suddenly the last human in the universe\u2026 Until he receives a distress call and a surprise connection from Saturn in U are the Universe, an incredible Ukrainian sci-fi flick from writer-director Pavlo Ostrikov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1284],"tags":[356,1458,3700],"class_list":["post-47864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-festivalsevents","tag-film-festival","tag-sci-fi","tag-siff2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47864"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47882,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47864\/revisions\/47882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}