Into Eternity: A Film for the Future (2010)

Michael (no not that one) Madsen's fascinating and thought provoking study of the problems of long-term storage of nuclear waste material could be presumed to fall into one of two documentary formats. A: The dry scientific lecture, a-la Horizon, or B: The Michael Moore-style charged polemic. Surprisingly it resembles neither of these so much as it does the stately and poetical science-fiction of Andrei Tarkovsky.Taking as his subject, the huge and potentially world-leading Finnish project to bury their waste in permanent underground storage caverns, the focus of the story swiftly moves on from preliminaries such as the logistics of construction, to the unexpectedly rich philosophical question of how we communicate the meaning and danger of such a place over its unimaginably vast intended lifespan of a hundred-thousand years. Michael frames his entire presentation as a message to some far- flung civilisation, twenty times more removed from our own than we are from those who built the pyramids. Telling the story of how we buried "the fire we could not extinguish" as an eloquent and profoundly moving legend, to be passed down from generation to generation... of the place, as he so beautifully expresses it, that we must always remember to forget.

okay, I'm a huge fan of documentaries, but Into Eternity is just a killer.It's not the fact that it is well grounded and has it's facts together.what really really hit me was the visual work combined with the music. this documentary is now my most favorite Sci-Fi film. the scenes are disturbingly furturistic with a mix of post-apocalyptic elements. you feel a constant threat looming over your head while watching this amazingly beautiful film. time unfolds as Madsen leads you into a project that wants to endure longer than the modern man. and for the first time in my life I felt really small and grabbed the scope of the world we're living in. 100.000 years is an awful long time, and it is a bold move to try to achieve something this lasting.watch the film, relax and let it just take you away for 90 minutes. I dó not regret it. and I'm definitely going to see it again. and again. and again

A white and eerie endless tunnel blasted out of the rock leads us in to the sinister yet strangely lyrical world of nuclear waste storage. The frozen trees of Finland lead us along icy tracks to something which must be beautiful, but no, it is the wicked giant who lives below the earth. We must never ever disturb him. Michael Madsen has produced and presents this film for the future with great love and concern for his fellow humans and the planet. Striking a match from within the dark and deep tunnel, a permanent tomb for nuclear waste, his face partially lit by the diminishing flame, Madsen speaks like a prophet/poet as he addresses the future and explains the dangers of disturbing this alchemical product entombed beneath the rock. He interviews the Finnish and Swedish scientists of the Onkalo project whose job it is to lock this stuff away and their philosophical dilemma about its whereabouts. Should we leave a marker warning DANGER KEEP OUT or should the site be unmarked and forgotten in the hope that it will truly never be disturbed. In this case never means, 100,000 years. Filmed across a large shiny desk with harsh lighting these poor men look anguished and disturbed by their responsibilities, almost to the point of nervous collapse. The footage of clear icicle-like rods containing the waste being lowered into shafts and water pools is like watching a ballet performed by gigantic molecules operated by an invisible hand. Everyone should see this film. It is a disturbing testament to our brightly lit lives which we continue to take for granted at our and the planet's peril.

Looking sometimes more like Ridly Scotts Allan than an environmental film this gentle documentary about the vast takes you through a sometimes surreal vogue of discovery. What to do with a substance so toxic it must be hidden for 100,000 years, it must survive war and ice age. Written as a video letter to future generations the direction, conceptual artist and filmmaker Michael Madsen, takes you through a visually stunning and thought provoking journey. This may seem like a dry subject but his understated and sometimes playful approach to the subject draws you in keeping you engaged thought.The film includes interviews with nuclear scientists and government representatives which take you into the strange world of thinking further into the future than we have ever dared to venture before. There is a candid honesty here that may alter your perception about our responsibilities.This haunting film may well become a testimony to our inability to see the real cost of nuclear power yet it remains totally non judgemental thought.