It would be the greatest challenge for humanity, without exception. Science, religion, philosophy, politics, morality, and ethics would be at stake with the arrival of a visitor from another world, potentially with technology far superior to our own and a vision of the universe we might not be prepared to comprehend. The Visit is a documentary that aims to expose all our weaknesses, paranoia, and positive ideas in the face of an alien arrival in an original way, and I must add, quite a realistic one.
A Different Kind of Alien Arrival
They came from Mars and died of a cold. Then Klaatu appeared, someone shot him, and Gort was about to break everything. The lizards wanted to eat us, the Daleks exterminate, and the folks from Independence Day have something against skyscrapers. The vast majority of science fiction projects that revolve around the arrival of an alien entity or force resort, sooner or later, to violence as their main resource. But what happens when that is not the visitor's intention? What if they decide to come to learn or teach? One might think of films like «Hombre Mirando al Sudeste», or the books in the K-PAX saga (whose adaptation was accused of plagiarism for its similarities with «Hombre Mirando al Sudeste»), but today we come across something that doesn't tell the story from the alien side, but from ours.
The Visit: A Realistic Look
The Visit presents us with the idea of an extraterrestrial visitor through various experts, and the so-called United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, a real office, whose headquarters are in Vienna. What would be the priorities in the face of such an event? Establishing a perimeter, setting up an environment that protects both parties, and obtaining essential information seem to be at the top of the list, all assuming the alien is physically visible in some way and arrives with the advantage of knowing one of our languages. The simple fact of not understanding someone has caused wars in the past, so I imagine special attention would be given to communication.
Festival Run
The documentary, written and directed by Michael Madsen, is touring festivals around the world. According to data published by IMDB, The Visit will debut at DocAviv on May 8, and then do the same in Serbia and Poland a week later. It is unlikely that The Visit will get a place in theaters with the parade of blockbusters devouring the box office, but anything can happen.
