The Antares paradox

Being able to cover a lot of festivals allows us to discover independent films that deserve to gain notoriety and be seen by the largest number of people. The lack of budget often pushes directors and scriptwriters to become more efficient while facing a cruel lack of time and shooting conditions. Certainly The Antares paradox (La Paradoja de Antares) was one of the good discoveries of the Fantastic Fest festival that we covered again virtually this year. Written and directed by Luis Tinoco who signs here his first film after a very long experience as a visual effects supervisor on many films and series, The Antares paradox (La Paradoja de Antares) tackles in an interesting way the question of knowing if we are alone in the universe and what characterizes our humanity while placing the action in a unique place.

Alexandra Baeza (Andrea Trepat) is a brilliant scientist who studies to prove the existence of extraterrestrials and this takes up all her time. When she thinks that her persistence has paid off and she receives a message from an extraterrestrial civilization, she finds herself facing many professional and personal difficulties. On the one hand, her managers think that the message she is trying to decipher is an anomaly and they give her until midnight to have access to sophisticated telescopes. On the other hand, a powerful storm threatens to cut off the power supply to her equipment and her father Manel (Jaume de Sans) is close to death and is calling for her.

All of our lives are about choices and balance and this film reflects this universal theme perfectly. The Antares paradox (La Paradoja de Antares) also addresses the question of how far we are willing to go to achieve our goal. If this one works so well, it is because the director has taken advantage of his experience in special effects and pays great attention to it here. After signing the direction of three short films (Ladrones de motores (2008), Malacara y el misterio del bastón de roble (2008) and Caronte (2017)), his first film is totally mastered and certainly makes Luis Tinoco an emerging director that we have not finished hearing about.

The great difficulty of a film like this one, taking place in a restricted setting, a unique place, is to know how to succeed in holding the attention of the spectators for more than ninety minutes and this relies not only on a perfectly mastered script (which is the case here) but also on the presence of an invested cast and the film relies solely on the presence on the screen of the actress Andrea Trepat, while the other characters intervene only on the control screens of her research office.

The Antares paradox (La Paradoja de Antares) may not give us a definite answer on the existence of extraterrestrials, but it shows that instead of trying to communicate with other intergalactic civilizations, men should start to know how to communicate with each other before going to look for other traces of life millions of kilometers away from the earth.

The Antares paradox (La Paradoja de Antares)
Written and Directed by Luis Tinoco
Produced by Luis Tinoco 
Starring Andrea Trepat, Aleida Torrent, Jaume de Sans, David Ramírez, Ferran Vilajosana, Dermot Arrigan, Christian Avil, Helena Carrión, Luis de Sannta, Jan Dumont, Eduard Gibert 
Music by Arnau Bataller
Cinematography : Luis Tinoco
Edited by Frank Gutiérrez, Luis Tinoco
Running time : 97 minutes

Seen on September 31, 2022 (press screener)

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