European Films

Milky Way was shot in the autumn of 2006 and the winter of 2007 on location in Hungary and is currently in postproduction.  Labeled a psychedelic film, Milky Way should, similar to the experience of becoming immersed in ambient music, allow the viewer to connect to the film on various levels; an open approach that does not reinforce any one concrete interpretation. Watching Milky Way should lead "to a kind of metaphysical experience", which fits completely into Fliegauf’s "hypnotic-transcendent world, familiar from his earlier films Forest and Dealer".

The film is described as consisting of "a string of episodes linked through similar atmosphere and style, forming an organic unity; the dramaturgic connection between the story-fragments is mystery. What sort of mysteries are they? They are ordinary, divine, psychological, natural, micro-realist, and all these combined".

The musical style ambient is described by Brian Eno, often considered the father of modern ambient music, as music that "must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting". Fliegauf has tried in Milky Way to transpose this idea to film, which should give interesting results to say the least, since listening to music and going to the cinema are such different experiences. Will Fliegaug have made the first muzak film or will the film enthrall everyone but each person differently?

According to recently released press notes, the film consists of minimalist long shots that show the actions of the human figures from an objective, outsider’s perspective in a scenery that is "eternal, motionless, and vast. The hidden main character is the atmosphere and planet Earth itself, or in a wider sense: the Milky Way, the galaxy in which we live. We watch the events and mysteries from afar; each episode is shown only for the length of time it takes for our imaginations to get rolling". Fliegaug calls this approach the "orbital point of view", that allows the viewers "to see the place where we live for what it really is: one planet in an infinite universe. In this film there are no countries, cities, and political conflicts. Instead we see the biosphere, timeless landscapes, and the curious and mysterious beings living in them: ourselves. Milky Way is a unique kind of nature film, where instead of giraffes and penguins, we see humans".

The hyphenate is not only the writer-director of Milky Way but is also credited as the composer of the film’s music as well as one of the people responsible for its effects, costumes and casting. The film could put in an appearance (or should that be "experience"?) at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

• preview: Ray Loriga's Teresa, el cuerpo de Cristo (Teresa: The Body of Christ)