Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas

This time I’ll take the opportunity to tell you about one of my favourite movies, Cloud Atlas, released in 2012.

Produced by Tom Tykwer and directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski (formerly known as 'The Wachowski Brothers', in their good old days of The Matrix), this fascinating thought-provoking over-2-hour-long narrative tells us how the present and the past are connected, how our acts of kindness, strength and bravery affect other people’s destinies. From its very release it has been provoking debate among critics and the audience alike.

The six interconnected stories that comprise the plot are set at different times in different places of the Earth and revolve around the same objects and symbols that are unknowingly inherited from one era to another. To add to the feeling of inheritance, the same cast of heavily made up actors perform throughout the stories, creating a puzzle with ideally matching pieces.

The story reveals the concepts of love, weakness and cowardice in each of the fragments that mirror each other with the characters’ lives and deaths, while  the final scene of the film closes the circular narrative and brings it to a happy end.

The film appealed to me immediately, but I had to watch it more than twice to fully enjoy all the details it offers. It is worth seeing if you believe we are not on our own but our lives are closely connected to all previous and future generations, and I do recommend it to those who like to see actors revealing different edges of their talent in one piece.