On the 2nd September in Astronomical Observatory at Kyiv National University Docudays UA invited on the screening of Michael Madsen’s new film, The Visit – An Alien Encounter. On the same day this film which builds up a possible scenario of first contact with aliens on Earth had its premiere screenings in twenty countries. There are some comments from our viewers.

Darya Stokoz, art-coordinator, British Council in Ukraine

I think most of the viewers would agree – since even the director himself doesn’t try to hide it – that The Visit is much more than a mere fantasy or a very successful modeling of the first human alien encounter. It is indeed an exceptional documentary, it concerns not that much the reality itself, but rather its philosophy and interpretation, without digressing from the genre.

We’re hung up about ourselves so much, whether we’re being alone, with the loved one, while talking to some friends, representing our organization, or even the whole humanity. We lack chances and time to break out of the borders of our perception of the world, the society, and culture to which we belong. After all, it may cause a great deal of distress and become a true challenge, I’m talking about the communication with the people who are different from us, not to mention the aliens. But the director is succeeding in establishing this dialog that deals with such inflammable questions such as the power, the control, fear, and destruction. “Man would rather destroy everything than give up the illusion that he controls it all.” At the moment of our most powerful resistance we lose the capability to enrich the reality, to look differently at the usual things, to understand the world and ourselves better. Strange as it may seem, in the end we go back to the same self-contained “me,” but it still brings a person up to a new level, along with their world. Too ideal? For certain. 

PS We’re still gonna send David Attenborough to meet the aliens first. 

PPS Ground Control to Major Tom, commencing countdown, engines on.

Borys Labut, photographer

A very fun and inventive film. Thank you! The venue for the premiere was incredible. The gardens, the telescopes, and the real astronomers. They are lucky people. 

Alina Kurash, coordinator of programs, Delegation of Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and Democracy

Thanks for the film and the conference! Such a hugely interesting project!

And also, after the film, I felt an urge to listen to David Bowie again.

Anton Baibakov, composer

Instead of a journey outside I deepened inside myself. Thank you for the film.

Varvara Perekrest, designer

I like the film very much as an idea, for the way it succeeded in capturing a real story about an imagine event, the metaphors that has been used. But it’s all from the communication standpoint, as for the film I don’t really know much about those things.

Iryna Tantsiura, office/event-manager, Heinrich Böll Foundation in Ukraine

I liked everything. It’s not often that you can encounter such an ironical Kubrick homage in documentaries) and, besides, the screening venue was perfect.

Kateryna Gornostai, director

Maybe it’s due to my excessive resent editing job, but I couldn’t watch the film as a regular viewer, I was constantly paying attention to the way it’s done. And it’s done very extravagantly and interestingly; this is somehow strange, to make a film that would captivate a viewer, even though it consists largely of “talking heads”. There is this beautiful dark screen blinking, overlapping voices. It’s a pity that I’m noticing all of these editing tricks and I can’t fully appreciate their true effect. Another thought that was bugging me: if I was a conspiracy theorist, I would definitely think that someone has visited us already, and the director (supported by a number of counties and film-institutes) is preparing us for the meeting with those who are already among us. I though about it because the content of the film is pretty simple, it appeals to international viewership, meaning that it will be understood everywhere in Earth – you just have to translate it. The part about the military powers of humans scared me, again, if conspiracy theory is considered, it looked as if some sort of excuse of a possible World War III which would begin allegedly because of some extraterrestrial forces. My fantasy went on a ride in this place. But, getting back to the point, of course the film is not about aliens. The main thing for me was the question from an “alien”: who is he dealing with here on Earth? In other words, this is an attempt to understand who we are, by rebooting our usual coordinate system. It is funny to think about that on such a huge scale. That was a good film-experience! Thank you!

Oksana Karpovych, Docudays UA
I attended the screening with my 10 year old nephew. Every 10 minutes he was asking me if the film seems interesting to me. He was bored but also lazy to focus and read Ukrainian subtitles. I wasn't. I have an experience of feeling myself an alien in my own country after a year of not visiting it. I can only imagine how weird, bizarre humans may look for those from other galactic systems. So I was thinking about bizarrness of humans during the screening. Of our language, body, habits, architecture but also bizarrness of logics: we are ready to welcome aliens while very often unable to welcome our neighbors...

Photo: Darya Telikova