Into Eternity (2010)

Directed by: Michael Madsen | 75 minutes | documentary | Starring: Carl Reinhold Bråkenhjelm, Mikael Jensen, Berit Lundqvist, Michael Madsen, Wendla Paile, Esko Roukola, Sami Savonrinne, Timo Seppälä, Juhani Vira, Peter Wikberg, Timo Äikäs

Important, but anything but sexy. This is how you can describe the problem that ‘Into Eternity’ deals with. This Scandinavian documentary tells of a large-scale project to discharge nuclear waste. An immense storage facility is being built in Onkalo to store part of the Finnish nuclear waste. That space is 500 meters underground and must be in order for at least 100,000 years. Only then is the radioactive waste harmless.

This not-so-exciting subject makes for a fascinating documentary. The quality is not in the structure. We alternately see wonderful images of the underground activities and the talking heads of scientists, employees and managers of the underground site.

The true appeal of ‘Into Eternity’ is in its concept. Director Michael Madsen made this documentary as an informational film for the Man of the Year 102,000. That future viewer is addressed directly, sometimes by the director from the spooky caverns of Onkalo, sometimes by the voice over. As a result, you as a viewer can do nothing but identify with that future relative, and listen with bewilderment to those mythical ancestors from 100,000 years ago. And you marvel at your own time.

Through the concept and through the sharp questions of interviewer Madsen, a razor-sharp image emerges of a person who is the victim of his own inventiveness. A person who devises solutions at a detailed level (onkalo’s site contains warnings in all languages ​​of the world for the future man) but who has no idea how to tackle the bigger problems. A human being who possesses the intelligence to carry out brilliant projects, but who also houses a primitive creature that wants to survive at all costs.

For example, ‘Into Eternity’ is much more than a look at the problem of nuclear waste. It is a simultaneously disturbing and fatalistic look at human nature. It is a film that fills you with compassion for the man of 102,000, a man in whose shoes you have stood for a while but who will probably never enter the earth. Because after seeing ‘Into Eternity’ you understand how bad humanity actually is.