Moebius (1996)

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Movie
German title Moebius
Original title Moebius
Country of production Argentina
original language Spanish
Publishing year 1996
length 88 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Gustavo Mosquera R.
script Gustavo Mosquera R. , Pedro Cristiani , Gabriel Lifschitz , Arturo Oñatavia , Natalia Urruty , María Ángeles Mira
production Gustavo Mosquera R. , María Ángeles Mira
music Mariano Nuñez West
camera Abel Peñalba
cut Alejandro Brodersohn , Pablo Georgelli
occupation

Moebius is an Argentine mystery / science fiction film by Gustavo Mosquera R. from 1996. As the name already shows, the plot revolves around the Möbius strip . The film opened in German cinemas on October 2, 1997.

The film is based (like the film of the same name from 1992 ) on the short story A Subway Called Moebius by AJ Deutsch from 1950.

action

The young topologist Daniel Pratt is let in on a mysterious secret by the director of the Buenos Aires subway company , Marcos Blasi : an entire train - subway number 86 - has disappeared without a trace, including the passengers. At the same time, some signals go crazy, sometimes reporting a train where there is no one and thereby blocking the route network. Since the route network has become so complex due to numerous expansions - especially a new circular line - that the engineers can no longer see it themselves, the topologist is supposed to find out about the train by studying the plans of the last expansion to find representatives of the mayor who announced the visit for the late evening to offer an explanation.

First Pratt tries to find the plans at the city archives, but there he is confronted with the fact that a certain Hugo Mistein , allegedly an employee of the subway project, had stolen the plans. Pratt recognizes his former mathematics professor in Mistein. After finding out his address at the university, he goes to Mistein's apartment, but only meets a young girl, Abril , who, after some resistance, gives him entry into the apartment and lets him go in his search for the plans.

On the professor's desk he discovers the plans and an apparently absurd theory: Certain systems could behave like a Möbius strip with a certain complexity . According to this theory, the subway is still in the route network, but it has reached the other side of the belt via the ring train, which is why it cannot be seen from the outside. You can, however, return to the system at any time via the ring train. At the meeting in the evening with the director and the city officials, he was finally able to confirm this theory when he heard the train himself passing through a station without being seen. However, the director and city officials do not believe his statements.

Although Blasi no longer takes him seriously after this meeting and is no longer interested in his help, Pratt does not let the phenomenon rest. On the basis of Mistein's theory, the departure times of the subways and the details of the subway network, he tries to find out the location at which the train crosses over to the visible side of the Möbius strip. As he takes a closer look at one of the tunnels, he is almost run over by a suddenly approaching subway. Annoyed, he gets on the next best subway to go home.

Möbius strip

After a few minutes he discovers that something is wrong with this subway. One of the passengers reads a four-day-old newspaper and the subway doesn't stop either, but is getting faster and faster. The other passengers are also in a strange trance state. Pratt realizes that it is the lost subway no. 86, looks for the driver's cab and there meets the wanted man, Mistein. This reveals to him that the energy released by the process would accelerate the train to an infinite speed and that it would then enter a new stage that is not described in detail. In the last scene, can be seen in the Pratt and Mistein, the train is so fast that the platforms already as in fast motion seem to fly by.

Some time later, one of the subway stations reported to Director Blasi and claimed that an empty subway had suddenly appeared there. Blasi can confirm that this is the missing subway 86. The city leaders who are summoned advise him to simply drive the train to a depot and forget about history. Blasi explores the train and finds Pratt's notebook on the floor, in which the latter has left a message that he is on a journey with no return.

The film ends with the subway station's phone ringing and Blasi hears as he walks past that something has been lost - the dialogue is similar to that of the opening scene in which the lost object was subway no.86.

production

Production costs were only about $ 250,000. The entire film was shot with two old 35-millimeter cameras, one of which was from 1926 and was prepared by Mosquera for recording special effects. Most of the work, including acting, was done by students at the Universidad del Cine film school in Buenos Aires, where Mosquera teaches. María Ángeles Mira , also a professor at this university , acted as co-producer .

Despite the low cost, the film received international attention and won several awards. It has also been shown at numerous film festivals, including a. at the Berlinale and the Sundance Film Festival . For many of the contributors, it was a stepping stone to a career in the Argentine film industry.

Reviews

"A multi-layered film parable that finds a hypnotizing visual language for its fantastic material and cleverly maintains the balance between existential reflection and political allusions to the time of the military dictatorship."

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Moebius in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed on November 16, 2016

Web links