#20. The Congress
Director/Writer: Ari Folman
Producers: Unknown
Distributor: Rights Available.
The Gist: Loosely based on “The Futurological Congress” a short story by sci-fi writer Stanislaw Lem. Set in a futuristic world in which everything appears to glisten, money is abundant and there is a general good feeling in the air, but all this has a dark underbelly. This is about the world of an actress (Robin Wright), she’s in decline because the studios just sampled her and they kept using her image, and she walks into the future, which is a world that is totally controlled by the manufacture of psychiatric pharmacology products.….(more)
Cast: Robin Wright
List Worthy Reasons…: It’s his use of animation in Waltz with Bashir that essentially put the docu filmmaker on the map. Now that Ari Folman figured out his strength, it’ll serve him well in this crazy sci-fi premise which for the record includes live-action sequences. Full disclosure: I goofed on this being a 2011 release – but I’m not striking it from the list because we really don’t how far into production it is. Here’s a preview for what’s in store.
Release Date/Status?: Cannes 2011: One percent chance. Cannes 2012: 99 percent chance.