Half the World (1993)
The sun blazes down from the sky with destructive power; exposing oneself to its light means death. People have transposed everyday existence to the night. In the metropolis of HALF WORLD a culture based on various languages and lifeforms has grown rampant. Everyone is looking for a way to survive.
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A waste of 90 minutes of my life
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
This ultimately exasperating slice of Austrian sci-fi conjures up a metropolitan society where the sun's rays have become fatal and life continues at night or behind shades. Controlling all images of the sunlit world now off-limits is the all powerful Luna organization, but a disparate band of rebels stands determined to free themselves from the dark and re-embrace the light. Unfortunately, this is only half the movie. There's the germ of an idea, excellent use of Vienna and Hamburg locations, and impressive high-contrast photography, yet the plotting and characterization are dispiritingly minimal and one's interest soon flags. A missed opportunity.
Due to a drastic decrease in the ozone layer, the rays of the sun become so strong and produce so much ozone at ground level that people can only leave their homes some hours after sunset and have to return to their save shelters before sunrise. Very realistic and well played, good imagination, great actors. Unfortunately, only in German.