Pavlo Ostrikov’s U Are The Universe is a film of many brutal awakenings for his protagonist Andriy Melnyk. Playing Andriy, a space trucker, is Volodymyr Kravchuk, his character learning of a nuclear holocaust that made Earth explode. The explosion is so strong that it reaches Callisto, where he normally works as someone throwing Earth’s garbage. That explosion also means that his only companion is Maxim (Leonid Popadko’s voice), a robot. That’s until he hears a transmission from Catherine (Alexia Depicker’s voice), a French scientist.
What’s more is that Andriy starts sculpting Catherine’s description on clay, which is the right amount of corny. This love story takes some turns as her spacecraft gets too close to Saturn’s gravity pull. The distance between Jupiter to Saturn is 700 million kilometres, a journey that would take days even in a broken spacecraft. Distance isn’t Andriy’s only obstacle, and Max keeps telling him that rescuing Catherine may not be worth it. The biggest conflict here is whether to help someone even if one faces danger in doing what feels right.
U Are The Universe has three compelling characters including, spoiler alert, a robot who may be evil and gay. I’ll add a few more in that the spacecraft and space itself are just as compelling to viewers. And all it really takes to convey sadness is light slowly travelling through space, a light that feels cold. All these elements make it worth it to find out if Andriy rescues the girl whom he loves.
- Rated: NR
- Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Science Fiction
- Release Date: 9/7/2024
- Directed by: Pavlo Ostrikov
- Starring: Leonid Popadko, Volodymyr Kravchuk
- Produced by: Anna Yatsenko, Volodymyr Yatsenko
- Written by: Pavlo Ostrikov
- Studio: ForeFilms, Stenola Productions
