Vanishing Waves (Aurora) Directed Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper

In a nondescript “contemporary-future” (as described by director Kristina Buožytė), Lukas soon becomes sucked into lucid-dream-like world, not only mentally connecting with the brain-waves of a female coma patient, but also eliciting a romantic relationship with her: a surreal relationship that interferes with his personal (real) life. The deeper he becomes immersed in this world of fantasy, lust and fulfillment – which he keeps secret from all around him in violation of the experiment’s regulations - the harder it becomes for him to find gratification in reality.

Although visually attractive, and interesting (albeit not entirely original) as an abstract conjecture as to what goes on in the mysterious depths of a comatosed mind as well as the absurdity of unconsciousness, the story quickly turns into a two-hour tirade of fetishist sci-fi clichés in a weary endeavour to be inventively risqué. The film certainly pushes the viewer (and sometimes their stomachs) to their limits with graphic and repetitive bombardments of surreal (occasionally grotesque) erotic encounters. Successfully, however, it manages to induce both the claustrophobia and agoraphobia commonly associated with bad dreams, by setting scenes respectively within small, confined and strangely geometric spaces, or in the middle of expansive oceans and fields.

The film ends leaving a number of narrative questions unanswered - such as the identity and relevance of the disruptive recurrence of a middle-aged man in Lukas’ dreams - and we come away having understood only that the experiment succeeded in mentally (and emotionally) connecting Lukas with a coma patient: a piece of knowledge gained in the first 15 minutes of the film!

By Sara Ishaq