This feature script written by Jonny Pert concerns two brothers who have looked after one another since their traumatic early childhood, bound by a shared grief. As the plots unravels, we see an emotional, temporal and literal rift begin to unravel the bonds between them, when the older brother reveals his desire to leave the younger for the first time since they ran from home. The plot is revealed in two alternating timelines, separated by a tragic event that changes the younger brother’s life irrevocably. Scenes alternate between those happening before the trauma and those happening after, the trauma itself only revealed in the final scene. The script’s title refers to the discovery of a rapid geomagnetic flip in the earth’s ancient past, a literal swapping of North and South poles, discovered through the analysis of volcanic rocks near the French village of Laschamp.
This piece was set to be the company’s first feature-length film, but circumstances including Ilya’s deportation back to Russia hampered the entire process. With the film fully written, cast and with rehearsals underway, we were forced to cancel production. Now, while we don’t believe in fate, we are in fact happy in retrospect that the project was held back at that time. With all the experience gained in the years since, we feel that if and when we come back to this project, we will be much more prepared to make the kind of film we envisioned and tell this poignant story in the way it was meant to be told.
