The Congress

Dir: Ari Folman

2013

****

Ari Folman's 2013 film The Congress is an intriguing existential multi-layered head-trip fantasy but with depth to back it up. Using Stanislaw Lem's science-fiction novel The Futurological Congress as inspiration, Ari Folman mixes live action with animation to explore the various levels of one's mental state. Robin Wright plays a somewhat fictional version of herself, her real films are acknowledged but her two children (Kodi Smit-McPhee and Sami Gayle), agent (Harvey Keitel) and home (aircraft hangar) are all fictional. In the film Robin Wright is regarded as somewhat of a washed-up actress and that her recent career choices are been a far cry from her earlier work, although this is all fictional, you can't help but think she was chosen for a reason. She is an awesome actor, I've always been a fan but it's safe to say that he 00s was not her best decade. It's clear she knows exactly what the score is and is obviously up for a challenge and that makes her perfect in the lead role. She's called into the Miramount (get it?) studios and given an offer; sell her rights to her digital image for lots of money, with this money she can retire and care for her son who is suffering from Usher Syndrome. With her digital image, the studio will be able to make films with her as the age she is for the next twenty years without her consent on which project her likeness is involved with. Stanislaw Lem's story was an allegory of communist dictatorship, Folman has switched it so that it would deal with dictatorship within the entertainment industry. The fall from politic to image may seem shallow but it really isn't, especially when the film goes some way in pointing out the very real situation those in the media go through. Things get a little bizarre when, once the twenty-year lease of her image is up, Wright ventures into the studio's futurological congress that is held in a hotel in Abrahama City, an animated city were people become animated avatars of themselves after drinking a chemical solution (cue Folman's trademark animation). This is where the boundaries of consciousness become blurred. Wright becomes trapped in an animated world and it becomes impossible to tell what is real and what is dream as she begins the search for her son who she finds had come looking for her. This is not for the casual viewer, it's a very clever idea and deserves full attention. The switch from real life to animation is beautifully handled and I think Folman is one of the few directors who could have pulled it off as well. Robin Wright, Harvey Keitel and Paul Giamatti (as her sons doctor) are all very convincing in their roles, the animation is spectacular and it is by far the most original film I've seen for quite some time. It's a stark but colourful satire that gives the audience things to think about that they didn't even know existed. It's definitely my kind of sci-fi.