Way Beyond

At CERN, an international commission of experts closely follows the FCC (Future Circular Collider) dossier, an enormous project to construct the new particle accelerator, the result of a collaboration between more than 150 institutions and partners. Pauline Julier’s film is presented like a multi-faceted mirror of this mad and beautiful adventure, with its unexpected ramifications, connecting scientific research to the most diverse questions, and thus touching on the communication strategy, territorial policy, or even financing… Although science inspires dreams, if it is to turn public and political opinion in its favour, it must know how to sell itself. Through brilliant writing, Way Beyond retraces the story of this colossal challenge, charmingly evoking an entire imaginary scientific world. While the archive images and the elegant and carefully prepared soundtrack send us back to a form of retro-futurism, the discussions between the experts gathered are feeling trivial, overly pragmatic and down-to-earth, so far away from the origin of the universe and fundamental particles. 

Javier Martín