Into Eternity

Danish filmmaker Michael Madsen is the rare documentarian interested in a complete cinematic experience. This stunning work is fashioned as a piece of ambient science fiction, the camera drifting through the tunnels of Onkalo, a Finnish facility with miles of underground space, to reveal the horrors that lie within.

It is the first attempt ever at a permanent storage for nuclear waste, that must remain isolated from all living organisms for at least 100,000 years. Once full, the facility will be sealed off, never to be opened again.

The science is sound, but how does one anticipate the human folly of future civilizations? How do we warn our descendants of the deadly cargo we send into eternity? Can we prevent them from thinking they have found the pyramids of our time, mystical burial grounds, hidden treasures? Which languages and signs will they understand? And if they understand, will they respect our instructions?

Formally exacting (Madsen harnessed the participation of Scandinavia’s foremost energy experts) and sonically immersive, Madsen’s approach is so hypnotic that you emerge as if roused from a troubling dream.

Captivating and extremely frightening, Into Eternity is a documentary time-capsule, into the underworld and into the future.