Ari Folman’s follow-up to the excellent Waltz With Bashir looks to be just as unique and beautiful as his oscar-nominated animated doc.
The Congress is a loose adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s story The Futurological Congress. The synopsis as presented on Wikipedia- The book opens at the eponymous congress, a light-heartedly grim Malthusian parody of the state of the world. A riot breaks out and the hero, Ijon Tichy, is hit by various psychoactive drugs, which are being used as weapons by both the government and rebels. Ijon and a few others escape to the safety of a sewer beneath the Hilton where the congress was being held, and in the sewer he goes through a series of hallucinations and false awakenings which cause him to be confused about whether or not what’s happening around him is real. Finally, he believes that he falls asleep and wakes up 150 years later. The main part of the book follows Ijon’s adventures in the future world — a world where everyone takes hallucinogenic drugs, and hallucinations have replaced reality.
Robin Wright (Forrest
Gump, A Christmas Carol) will star in the film as herself, which
seems to be just one of the many changes made in adapting
the source material. It will start off with live-action footage and gradually shift into Folman’s unique animated style, which certainly seems to be the right fit for a surreal hallucinogenic film.
Our old pal Russ over at /Film found a clip of the first footage up on Youtube that shows how great it looks- check it out, and make sure to track down Waltz With Bashir as soon as you can.