Eden Log

In today's film universe of blue screens and CGI, Eden Log is a kick in the hard drive, matching money with painstaking set design on a shoe-string budget. Our hero awakens in a dark, muddy pit, a flickering light guiding the way to a distant exit, just the beginning of a struggle to regain his memory and escape a strange underworld of tree people, scientists, Imperial Stormtroopers and monsters. We join him as he stumbles about in the dark, drip fed clues as to why he's befallen this fate. Big Brother (or Sister in this case) projections speak of Workers, The Council and The Surface, while maze-like maps reveal an energy plant of sorts, manufactured by the Eden Log corporation, and powered by a dark secret. Hand held cameras, subtle lighting and clever editing transform sets of corrugated iron, spray-painted tubes and tree branches into an impressive dystopia. This is the Blue Peter Garden, designed by Marilyn Manson and tended to by Beijing's labour work force, and while director Vestiel may have scavenged from a range of sci-fi films to build his story, the bricolage world he's created for Eden Log is truly original. [Alastair Roy]