Onset by Anna Engelhardt and Mark Cinkevich is a CGI-horror film that uncovers the underlying process of Russian occupation hidden from a bare eye.
A demon roams through an ominous synthetic environment, reconstructed from satellite images of Russian air bases: Khmeimim in Syria, Baranovichi in Belarus, and Belbek in Ukraine. Passing through their deserted corridors, interrogation rooms, and electricity substations, this parasitic force spreads out from the military structures. Devastation follows in its wake.
In Onset, Engelhardt and Cinkevich craft an unholy alliance of medieval demonology, investigative research, and CGI animation to uncover the hidden life of these military outposts. Over the course of the film, the true horror of Russia's wars coalesces into a parasitic monster that possesses sovereign states to destroy them from within. The film demonstrates that Russian colonial occupation is not a singular event but a subtle rearrangement of infrastructure. The process is made invisible, hidden under the piles of cables and wires that gradually entangle themselves with the body of the state till it becomes possessed – entirely controlled by an external power.
The film shows how the takeover of infrastructure in Syria, Belarus, and Ukraine marked the onset of invasions. It locates the viewer within an unsettling CGI environment, reconstructed from satellite images of Russian air bases – installments converted from existing infrastructure. Requiring vast amounts of energy, they extend into hundreds of kilometers of supporting structures such as transmission lines, power plants, and electricity substations. In essence, the airbases transform electric power into the power to colonize.
Onset presents terror as an energy-intensive state. Delving into the power grid of the military, one of the largest energy consumers, it glimpses into the potential to cut its sprawling cables and pipes.
