Science fiction films have captivated audiences for decades with their astonishing visions of life aboard interplanetary spaceships. However, Swedish filmmaker Erik Wernquist has decided to move away from Hollywood stereotypes and use scientific foundations to offer a realistic vision of what it would be like to live in one of these immense ships.
In his new short film, shared by The confidentialWernquist takes us to a future that could be just a hundred years away.
The setting of his short film takes place in “Esperanto”, a planetary orbiter that rotates around its own horizontal axis at a speed of one revolution per minute. This rotation generates an artificial gravity that is equivalent to approximately half of the Earth’s gravity on its main deck.
“Esperanta” is presented as a leisure space, similar to a hotel or a space cruise ship, and the short explores the views that occupants would enjoy when the orbiter visits different worlds within our solar system. However, what is most intriguing about the short film is the way the light and shadows of the sun play on the interior of the ship as it rotates.
No artificial lights
Wernquist chose to keep all artificial lights off except for a few emergency lights, creating an experience in which only natural light illuminates the interiors of the shipgiving a feeling of solitude and contemplation.
The artist, whose previous work includes collaborations with NASA and other scientific organizations, has once again managed to convey his vision of the future of space exploration. In the past, he has worked on projects that envision what spacecraft that will take us beyond the solar system will look like and has created films in collaboration with Carl Sagan’s foundation.