Icarus Films: Level Five

A woman (Laura), a computer, an invisible interlocutor: such is the setup on which LEVEL FIVE is built. She "inherits" a task: to finish writing a video game centered on the Battle of Okinawa - a tragedy practically unknown in the West, but whose development played a decisive role in the way World War II ended, as well as in postwar times and even our present.

A strange game, in fact. Contrary to classical strategy games whose purpose is to turn back the tide of history, this one seems willing only to reproduce history as it happened. While working on Okinawa and meeting through a rather unusual network - parallel to Internet - informants and even eye-witnesses to the battle (including film director Nagisa Oshima), Laura gathers pieces of the tragedy, until they start to interfere with her own life.

film still

As in any self-respecting video game, this one proceeds by "levels". Laura and her interlocutor, intoxicated by their enterprise, use this as a metaphor for life itself, and gladly attribute levels to everything around them. Will she attain LEVEL FIVE?

"Marker's late masterpiece... keeps getting more contemporary every time I watch it... Visually rich (and beautifully written)." —Jonathan Rosenbaum, Cinema Scope

"A passionate and cerebral science-fiction adventure... there is nothing else in theaters now that feels quite as new." —The New York Times

"A fascinating glimpse of a historical event that's still little known in the West." —Variety

"This is a fin de siecle masterpiece crafted with life-worn hope for the new millennium just around the corner and a rueful awareness that the world remains as evanescent as ever." —Mubi Notebook