Red Earth
Seen at the 2023 Atlanta Film Festival.
One of the exciting things about filmmakers creating sci-fi films on a low-budget is seeing how they approach building the world visually. In “Red Earth,” writer-director Georg Koszulinski seems to be using filters and other coloring techniques in order to create his otherworldly vision of an post-apocalyptic Earth, but he also uses title cards to help tell his story. The source is always the same – “Tractatus Mars, Ursa Harriot”- and the words read as if from an unearthed journal from the past, even though this film takes place in our future. It’s an explorer’s journey, about the feelings that come from finding new land to inhabit, and reminiscing about the the home left behind.
As much as the film’s visuals tell the story of this 63-minute film, the music enhances the effect. Composed by the director himself, the score’s analog synth sound melds effortlessly with its lo-fi visual effects to create a sense of awe, of unease, of profound disappointment in man at how we view the universe as our plaything, rather than a natural world to be respected.
There are three voices we hear on the soundtrack. Each are members of the Harriot family, and all three represent a different relationship to the Earth, and Mars. Telos (Mark Evans) was one of the last humans on Earth, and he looks at a life of regret, of looking back at what they had, and putting the events the film describes in perspective. Casei (Christina Leidel) was someone torn from Earth to live on Mars; hers are the words of bitterness and loneliness. Thomas (Matt Devine) is someone whom is devoted to exploring, learning the secrets of the land, as well as learning lessons from it.
“Red Earth” is philosophical science fiction in the same vein as Tarkovsky’s “Stalker.” In fact, that might be a good companion piece to this film- both films look at destroyed land from the perspective of what fortunes it might have for the characters. This is not a journey where the characters find themselves succeeding triumphantly, but looking within themselves at their lives, and reflecting what was, what will be, and not liking what they find. It’s a challenge to the viewer individually, and humanity as a whole, to think about where we’re headed, and what it might mean.
Red Earth (trailer) from Georg Koszulinski on Vimeo.
