Into Eternity

This film is a futuristic myth about nuclear waste. In the few decades since the building of the first nuclear reactors, more than 250,000 tons of radioactive refuse has been produced, which will remain hazardous to human life for at least 100,000 years. focuses on one possible solution to this growing problem. Deep beneath the rocky surface of Finland, work is being done on the construction of Onkalo, literally "cavern," a gigantic and impenetrable repository where Finnish nuclear material is going to be stored in the coming millennia. It is a project of unprecedented proportions. Building began in the 20th century and will only be completed in the 22nd. Director Michael Madsen structures his film as a letter to future generations, focusing primarily on the philosophical and existential questions Onkalo calls up. Because how can a civilization that has only existed for a few thousand years have any hope of knowing what the world will be like in 100,000 years? How are we to prevent future generations - when current languages, societies and perhaps even life forms have disappeared - from attempting to open up the bunker? Madsen makes a modest attempt by transforming the story into a mythic tale told in a series of interludes.