We are the Sprocket Holes vol. 176

ZENITH: An Arthouse BLADE RUNNER?

by Ben Umstead, January 7, 2011 6:10 PM

Back in September we reported on a low budget sci-fi flick called ZENITH. The trailer enticed with its dystopian dissonance and techno-conspiracy who-dun-nit motifs. At the end of the trailer a vague tag: " Fall 2010. In Select Theaters."

Well now we've got some theatrical play dates for the United States. "Grass roots" week long runs start in New York City on the 19th. See all dates below, and if you're not in one of the urban centers you can catch it on cable VOD services from February 1st - March 31st and on Netflix starting February 22nd. Is it kind of interesting for a science fiction film to take full advantage of essentially all release formats in a very small window? Sure, it is the wave of the future. As for the arthouse BLADE RUNNER reference? The full quote from Flavowire:

A post-apocalyptic, paranoid, Baroque fantasy... a visually stunning art-house Blade Runner.

Ye ol' plot synopsis follows:

Zenith is a retro-futuristic steam-punk thriller, about two men in two time periods, whose search for the same grand conspiracy leads them to question their own humanity.

Starting from a fictional recreation of Stanley Milgram's Obedience to Authority experiment, Zenith plunges into exploring multifaceted dimensions of the human experience. The film follows two parallel stories - of father and son - now, and 40 years into the future. Searching for the same elusive conspiracy, both father and son find no answers; instead, their journeys unravel their lives and force them to look deep and hard at themselves and their surroundings. In the end, they are both confronted with the same Faustian bargain - but each one chooses a very different path.

Zenith Theatrical trailer from Surla Films on Vimeo.