BIOSPHERE
MQ Hof 8
MQ Arena 21
Free Entry
USA 2023 | D: Mel Eslyn | Feature film | 107 min. | OV with English subtitles
Austrian premiere
With: Sterling K. Brown, Mark Duplass
Script: Mel Eslyn, Mark Duplass
Camera: Nathan M. Miller
Editing: Christopher Donlon
Music: Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
Production Design: Megan Fenton
Costume: Ronald Leamon
Producers: Zackary Drucker, Mel Eslyn, Maddie Buis, Shuli Harel
Production: Duplass Brothers Productions
The world in the near future. The earth has been destroyed, humanity almost completely wiped out. Only the two childhood friends Ray and Billy, two former conservative politicians who are not entirely innocent of the end of the world, are still alive. In their dome-like shelter, they jog in circles together, cook meals, amuse themselves with a games console and have carefree conversations. When the tins run out, their kitchen garden fits into a small tub and there are only three specimens left swimming in the fish tank, their Buddy tone becomes more serious. When a fish, the last female, also dies, they have to think about whether and how things will continue. In this hopeless situation, something unexpected suddenly happens that makes Billy and Ray change their focus completely.
Mel Eslyn is a film producer and director. She produced the 2014 Sundance Film Festival hit The One I Love, directed by Charlie McDowell and starring Elizabeth Moss, Mark Duplass and Ted Danson. At the 2013 SXSW Film Festival, Eslyn presented Dayna Hanson's Improvement Club for the first time, which screened in competition. Her films as co-producer include Treatment, which premiered at the 2011 TriBeCa Film Festival, and Lynn Shelton's indie hit Your Sister's Sister, which was picked up by IFC at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival before screening at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and winning a Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Performance in 2012. The following year, Eslyn Shelton's follow-up film Touchy Feely premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Biosphere is her first feature film as a director.