Staff Pick: #Blue_Whale
By: Tatum McDonald
The world I grew up in was skeptical of the internet. This was not because we knew the evils that lurked in its depths but because we did not. The skepticism, however, did not equip my parents to protect me, and I explored largely unsupervised. The internet was still new enough that the only things they could think of to fear were strangers using the internet to get to me in real life (to give them some credit, some of the scariest moments in #Blue_Whale happen “IRL”).
Twenty-two years into the new millennium, the world is acutely aware of both the corporeal and incorporeal dangers of the internet. This is the genius of #Blue_Whale.
While investigating the suicide of her otherwise perfectly happy older sister, Dana (Anna Potebnya) is drawn into a sick and morbid game run by a mysterious masked profile picture. The whole story plays out through Anna’s computer screen. Her search history, text messages, and ever-active webcam drag the audience along as Ana, the masked figure, exposes her to new frightening images and experiences with each level of the game.
These things that Dana comes across during the game are some of the most horrifyingly graphic images of suicide and self-harm I have come across since learning that there are some things on the internet that I just do not need to see. In putting those images on the screen, writer Evgeniya Bogomyakova, and Director, Anna Zaytseva, capture the visual and emotional horrors of the internet in their rawest form, the way we would experience them ourselves.
#Blue_Whale
(Russia, 91 MIN)
Writers: Evgeniya Bogomyakova, Anna Zaytseva, Olga Klemesheva
Director: Anna Zaytseva
Cast list: Anna Potebnya, Timofey Eletskiy, Diana Shulmina, Olga Pipchenko, Yekaterina Stulova
Sunday October 30, 2022 9:15pm
Galaxy Theatre 7
Tuesday November 1, 2022 6:30pm
Galaxy Theatre 6