All Rise...

Judge Brett Cullum is putting this apple in a hat filled with perfume...it's art!

The Charge

"God wants order…he wants my sacrifice, and not my body."—Jesus

The Case

For some reason Supranova is the title for the United States DVD release, but this 2009 film is also known officially as For the End of Time. If you're looking for a nonlinear post-apocalyptic drama starring Jesus then you've landed in the right place. The film is basically a visual meditation on the soul, the body, and how impossible it is to conjoin these two conflicting ideas. All it really consists of are spooky artsy images with a scratchy female narration constantly spouting lyrical passages to go along with it. The bulk of the film is a woman covered in mud staring at a dead man half buried in the desert, and them waiting for anything to happen. The dead guy seems to care just as much as the live woman about what is happening. They both simply stare blankly towards eternity while the poetic lines fly by. Then we get to see a live guy embedded in rock who is being cut by a swinging pendulum that forces him to inhale at the right moment or die, and Pontius Pilate and Jesus show up. Later on we end up in an office building with insincere business executives. Do all these stories intertwine? Do we really care?

Supranova feels like an art installation, and not a particularly clear one. It makes you scratch your head and wonder what the hell any of this really means. It is the sole creation of first time film writer/director Ema Kugler who is a multimedia artist from Slovenia. She mainly works in video, so it makes sense that she is finally making a feature length project. Lending some serious art world credibility to the the narration is performance artist and New York legend Lydia Lunch who does a great job with the script. The actors are nobody you would ever know, and they are simply props and clothing racks anyway. There's not much humanity for anybody to play out, it's all just pose on this rock and look blank. This is one of those projects that would probably be far more successful with some sort of drug or alcoholic drink inside the viewer; it's a stoner flick for sure.

The DVD looks alright with a clear enough widescreen transfer that has a digital video quality. The piece was shot in high definition, so it looks just fine without much to complain about in the way of glitches or any artifacts. There's a stereo English track and no subtitles. Extras include a stills gallery that make as much sense as the feature itself. All in all we aren't given much to explain the puzzling narrative, and I suppose I would feel better with an artist's statement to guide me. No such luck though, so simply pop the disc in and get inebriated. This one is for those who like striking images without much else.

The Verdict

Guilty of being far too artsy to be called a film, Supranova is sentenced to find a plot.

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