Prepare yourself for a sensory overload of epic proportions. Nothing less than the history of the universe, the formation of the stars and planets, the origins of matter, and the daunting post-human future that lies ahead are explored in this mind-bending experience. Photon is an ultra-ambitious summation of human knowledge that combines stunning phantasmagoric visuals and a dense but engaging, even dryly humorous, voiceover in what you might call an experimental science lesson—a crash course in, well, everything. How did we come to be? How are we as we are? The biggest questions are asked, and answered, with inventiveness and aplomb. Photon even delves into the biological foundations of human behaviours such as violence and alcoholism. Dazzling animation visualizes that which we could otherwise not see, ingeniously illustrating details of quantum physics. It’s a strong dose of eye and brain candy in equal measure.
Direction
Leto crams 13.8 billion years into under two hours.
Visual Effects
Quantum physics has never looked this illegally pretty.
Writing
Dry humor about entropy. Who allowed this?
Director
Norman Leto
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Norman Leto is primarily a painter and musician—this is his only feature film, made with almost no traditional animation training.
The 'naukowiec' narrator Andrzej Chyra delivers what the director called 'anti-poetry'—deliberately flat to let the images overwhelm you.
PL
