The problem of a short film conflated to feature length rears its ugly head once again. THE LAST SPARK OF HOPE (W nich cala nadzieja), the 2023 debut feature by Poland’s Piotr Biedron, certainly has its attributes, but it’s very much an example of a 90 minute (85, actually) film that’s three times as long as it should be.
Biedron’s primary concern was one already expressed in his short films P.M. 2.5 (2017) and GOOD JOB (2020): environmental devastation, related via science fiction narratives. In THE LAST SPARK OF HOPE the themes are laid out in an opening voice-over warning that “We destroyed our planet through our own actions…We were like the Titanic, except we knew we were heading straight for an iceberg and were about to collide with it.” Accentuating the point, a textual disclaimer informs us that “This film may be based on a true story.”
The setting is a desolate solar-powered settlement atop a mountain, apparently the only portion of the Earth where toxic pollution hasn’t run riot. Residing in this settlement is a young woman named Eva (Magdalena Wieczorek), apparently the Earth’s last surviving human, and Arthur (Jacek Beler), a military robot bequeathed by Eva’s long-vanished father that looks like a low budget offshoot of the ‘bots seen in SHORT CIRCUIT (1986), WALL-E (2008) and CHAPPIE (2015).
Eva makes the mistake of treating Arthur as a friend rather than the glorified security guard it is. This gets her in a heap of trouble when she neglects to learn the updated security code set by Arthur, who refuses to let her into the compound and threatens to shoot her if she moves forward. Eva’s defense, that Arthur already knows who she is regardless of whether she’s able to recite the security code, fails to sway the bot, leaving her to face disillusionment and starvation.
Plot synopses of this film (including the imdb summary) tend to give nearly the entire thing away, an excusable infraction given that the narrative is so wafer-thin. Only the bitterly ironic ending contains any real surprise, and it’s not enough to justify the torpor of what came before.
What the film has in its favor is skilled and atmospheric visual design. Working with extremely minimal resources, Biedron and his collaborators make their limitations work for them by keeping things simple; the set design is accomplished with a minimum of clutter and the camerawork is imaginative and dynamic without ever seeming self-conscious.
Magdalena Wieczorek is strong as Eva, and Jacek Beler provides imposing robotic vocals for Arthur. Regarding Arthur, it’s a passable creation provided one doesn’t look too closely. If you do you’ll notice that the robot design is top-heavy, with a bulky torso, thick neck and gangly arms set atop some notably undersized wheels. How the thing keeps from falling over I don’t know, but it looks very ungainly.
Vital Statistics
THE LAST SPARK OF HOPE (W nich cala nadzieja)
K&K Select/Polski Instytut Sztuki Filmowej
Director: Piotr Biedron
Producer: Beata Pisula
Screenplay: Piotr Biedron
Cinematography: Tomasz Wójcik
Editing: Marceli Majer
Cast: Magdalena Wieczorek, Jacek Beler