THE LAST JOURNEY OF THE ENIGMATIC PAUL WR, 17min, France, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Directed by Romain Quirot

The red moon threatens our existence on earth. Our only hope is the enigmatic Paul WR, the most talented astronaut of its generation. But few hours before the start of the great mission, Paul disappears.

Shown at the September 2016 Sci-Fi/Fantasy FEEDBACK Film Festival

Movie Review by Kierston Drier

 There is a big red moon that hangs in the sky at all times now, and it will kill us all if Paul WR, an astronaut with the power to read thoughts, does not fly into it and save human kind. That is the pretence of Romain Quirot’s The Last Journey of the Enigmatic Paul WR. This French film must be praised on several levels, one of which being its attention to iconographic detail.

The film is set in the future, with hover cars and hyper-real technology. And yet everything the film touches has a strong retro 1960’s iconography. The film has beautiful color and brightness, and visual splendor that gives a nod to Frances’ famous Amelie.

The story leaves much to be questioned, but still satisfies the viewer. In the end we are left to wonder what makes Paul WR choose the path he does. Curiously, a film about reading thoughts, begs the audience to compose their own about the ending.

It can be argued that The Last Journey of the Enigmatic Paul WR is an alternate dimension housing a different version of earth, because the world the characters live in is both resembling our own and yet exists completely outside of us and our timeline.

We do not have an ominously huge red moon threatening our destruction, nor retro 1960’s car that hover and fly. But this is the joy of classic science-fiction- that we can throw out our disbelief and settle into a world that is a fun-house mirror to our own. We long to fall into a story set in a universe close enough to out own to be relatable, yet far enough way that we do not have to be made uncomfortable by the threats being too plausible.

Enjoy this film, it’s a beautiful view, an introspective story of a flawed hero who is at odds with a world he never made.

Watch the Audience FEEDBACK Video of the short film: