With a stark black-and-white palette that resembles manga art come to life, Tomasz Popakul’s Black tells a Twilight Zone-ish tale of two astronauts who can never return home. High above the Earth’s surface on an orbiting space station, they can see the mushroom clouds that are ripping the planet apart.
The psychological impact of what they’re witnessing from afar, not to mention the uneasy realization of their own doomed future, makes for some very strange vibes inside the station. The short, which the Polish filmmaker made during an artistic residency in Tokyo, is about Japanese astronauts—but the story feels chillingly universal, and its bleakness is (somewhat) offset by its seriously gorgeous animation.
[h/t Vimeo Staff Picks]
