Into Eternity

Reviews and Festivals

ALA Notable Video for Adults

“CRITICS’ PICK. I am tempted to call Into Eternity the most interesting documentary, and one of the most disturbing films, of the year so far... the way the movie and the people in it express their concern gives it a feeling of sublimity unusual in most environmentalist documentaries.”
— A. O. Scott, New York Times
Read Full Article Here

"Highly Recommended. A fascinating and eerie documentary.... Michael Madsen’s film raises difficult scientific, ethical and philosophical questions about the decision to invest in a technology that produces potentially destructive waste that will linger deep underground for 3,000 generations. Much to its credit, the film does not shy away from the tough questions. It is a truly disturbing film on many levels."
— Educational Media Reviews Online

“It might seem crazy, if not criminal, to obligate 3,000 future generations of humans to take care of our poisonous waste just so that we can continue running our electric toothbrushes. But it’s already too late to wave off the nuclear age, and Mr. Madsen’s film comes at a perfect time to join a worldwide conversation about what to do with its ashes.”
— Dennis Overbye, Science Reporter, New York Times
Read Full Article Here

"Excellent. The haunting Into Eternity ...is a rare hybrid: an information-packed documentary crossed with an existential art film. In a deceptively low-key manner, Danish filmmaker Michael Madsen has beautifully crafted one of the most provocative movies of the year."
— San Francisco Chronicle

“Madsen's film does not merely ask tough questions about the implications of nuclear energy– but about how we, as a race, conceive our own future. Tackles a subject almost beyond comprehension …. one of the most extraordinary factual films to be shown this year. Why isn’t every government, every philosopher, every theologian, everywhere in the world discussing Onkalo and its implications?”
— Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (UK)

“Michael Madsen’s film is a creepy, eerily elegant meditation on human folly, punctuated by philosophical and historical references, that asks: how do you keep 3,000 future generations from inadvertently opening this Pandora’s Box? If you thought the BP oil spill was scary…''
— Karen Cooper, Director, Film Forum

“CRITIC’S PICK. Madsen’s unconventional approach makes the already fascinating subject matter even eerier and more disturbing.”
— New York Magazine

“It is meant to boggle the mind and inspire awe—and it does. As in 2001 or The Time Machine, the story of the human race comes full circle. The unknown past meets the unknowable future in a wintry ground zero.”
— Village Voice

“Radical and stunning. Doesn't play like a documentary at all. Watching the film is akin to having a totally immersive, video game-like experience, a journey best described as Lord of the Rings meets 2001: A Space Odyssey. Time seems to stand still.”
— Slant Magazine

“Recommended. What animates the film is the other worldliness of the under-construction project, and the paradoxes the finished Onkalo will embody. If Onkalo succeeds, it will become the longest-lasting product of contemporary civilization — which it might very well outlive.”
— Mark Jenkins, NPR.org