The Congress

Israeli director Ari Folman’s latest film, a philosophical live-action/animated sci-fi adventure, has taken a long time to be released properly in Australia.

It is certainly an odd film, but as one of the most original feature films of this millennium, it is a shame that Australian audiences have had to wait so long to see it. Robin Wright plays an exaggerated version of herself; her difficult and erratic personality prevented her from acquiring the success she hoped for as an actress. Reluctantly she accepts a final offer from Miramount Studios to scan her body and voice to be used in films forever without her needing to be present, turning her from an actor into a character owned by the studio. Twenty years pass and we find Wright entering Abrahama City to speak at the Futuristic Congress. This is an animated world where people take hallucinatory drugs to become anything they want to be, and after rebels attack the Congress, Wright is poisoned and unable to get back to the real world.

There are times when Folman’s desire to explore so many different ideas means that the plot becomes convoluted, but the animated worlds we explore are astounding hark backs to early psychedelic film, and Wright’s brave performance steers us through the rough seas.