This rather dull, ponderous and pedestrian documentary from Danish conceptual artist Michael Madsen looks at Onkalo, a massive nuclear waste storage facility being built 500 metres underground in a remote area of Finland. It will comprise of over three miles of tunnels. As nuclear waste needs to be stored somewhere safe for the next 100,000 years, the facility needs to be secure and remain uncompromised by future generations. It is expected that it will be permanently sealed off sometime in the 22nd century. Neither sending it into space or burying it deep under the oceans practical solutions to the problem of nuclear waste. Storage facilities above ground are temporary at best, as the Earth is unstable. Wars, earthquakes, economic depressions, greenhouse effects will have an impact over the centuries. Despite the important subject matter, the ominous warnings sounded and the numerous questions raised, Madsen (who also made the short documentary To Damascus, etc) seems to lack the same sense of urgency as the recent nuclear doco Countdown To Zero. In fact, Masden seems to be addressing his film to future generations, and this gives the material a quasi-science-fiction feel. There are lots of talking head interviews with government officials, scientists, doctors, theologians and specialists in the field of nuclear waste management, but these are fairly dull. The film has been shot on high definition video, and the images are quite crisp and clear, especially when Masden takes his camera deep inside the cavernous site itself. It's a pity that the film itself is rather prosaic, occasionally repetitive, visually unexciting and unimaginative in structure. Also there is a lack of technical information on the details of the construction of this massive project, which would have provided some additional context. Into Eternity would have been better served as a tightly constructed 50 minute documentary which would have been more effective.
