What else is there?

Well, according to the Finnish director Tino Vuorensola there are Nazis in space. His new film, "Iron Sky" (2012) is about a group of Nazis who have been living for more than 70 years on the moon, more specifically the 'dark side of the moon,' having escaped the crumbling Third Reich after 1945 and by 2018 they have built the Fourth Reich, a secret space centre, and they are planning to invade earth. So...what is to be done with a film that concerns Space Nazis, was primarily funded by a group of fans and refused to be distributed in many UK cinemas? Watch it, of course. I went into this film with an open mind and with the general attitutde I maintain towards most films (albeit for this film I was more dubious than usual). Nevertheless I was quite surprised and I have an inckling that "Iron Sky" is set to become a cult classic.   

What does "Iron Sky" have to offer? It appears to be a genre mish-mash of sci-fi, comedy, a war epic and in a strange way, it's also a political satire. The film begins with American astronauts landing on the moon and discovering a Nazi space base. One of them, James Washington, is captured by the Nazis and used for experiments by a scientist strangely resembling Eienstein. Using Washington's (very technologically advanced) mobile phone the Nazi scientist manages to generate enough power to get the engines of the spaceship working. Therefore the major general, Klaus Adler, decides to make a trip to earth on a secret takeover mission. The teacher to the young Space Nazis about earth, Renete Richer, travels to earth for a different reason- to spread peace. She believes that Chaplin's famous film "The great dictator" (1940) is a short film about Nazi ideology spreading throughout the world (through the globe scene) and that the swastika is a symbol of peace. Washington eventually shows her the real truth about the National Socialist Party. The American President, who does indeed strongly resemble Sarah Palin, discovers Klaus Adler's takeover plan and declares war; because after all, any American President who starts a war in their first term gets re-elected (as the film points out). In the end, a somewhat natural order is restored (which ever way that can be taken in a film as bizarre as this). Parts of the film are not very polished with its overuse of stereotypes and cliché lines like 'take me to your leader,' but when all comes to pass I'm all for Charlie Chaplin's "The great dictator" (1940) still being appreciated in 2018.

'Nazis in space! what the f*** is this?'  But surprisingly the concept is not as far fetched as it seems- in the sense that other people have thought about Space Nazis before Vurensola's film release rather than it's a widely acknowledged fact, obviously (I'm not crazy, I swear). What is an accepted fact is Operation Paperclip- an American led project after WWII where over 700 Nazi scientists were employed by the American goverment in order to win the race against the Soviet Union and gain access to the Nazis techonological secrets. In 1930s German scientists began the 'Amerika Bomber' project where they would develop a suborbital bomber spacecraft known as Silbervogel (aka 'silver bird') to drop bombs on New York City. The design never materialized but after the war the forward thinking Nazi scientists designing these technologies were highly sought after for their advanced research. In the meantime, Robert A. Heinlein, in 1947, published 'Rocket Ship Galileo'; a science fiction novel regarding three American teenagers who travel to the moon only to find Nazis residing there. More recently, and perhaps, one of the more influential ideas came from Richard C. Hoagland- a man who in a recent radio transmission stated that he believed Obama cancelled the Lunar Program because he was warned by none other than the Space Nazi's themselves: "there's a war going on upstairs" he states, 'a Space Nazi civil war'. So it seems Space Nazi's have been suspected for a while.

However, if there is one thing this film advertises is the increasing popularity in using crowdfunding and crowdsourcing for Independent directors who do not have a Hollywood Budget. The film, which is a co-production between Finland, Germany and Australia was funded through sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo which handle fund-raising and then OpenIndie helps find and build audiences. This method of raising funds is becoming increasingly popular in the UK and Europe but is still illegal in the US. For “Iron Sky” the budget was around €7.5m, and although the fans may have payed a huge chunk of this, Mr Vuorensola was still determined to have the last word in regards to the film as he states: "this has nothing to do with democracy...this is a pure dictatorship." One bonus for the fans is that through Vuorensola's website (wreckamovie.com) they can request screenings in their area in advance, and help with with given tasks such as recording the background audio or design graphics work. The overall importance of crowdfunding is that it helps build a dedicated fan base for the films release and I believe it will become a popular method of raising support for many 'indie' films made in future years. "Iron Sky" will continue to accumulate fans, as using Nazi representations in films will always attract an audience. There are two reasons for this: firstly people feel guilty about the whole ordeal and want to try and understand why it happened and secondly Nazis represent pure evil so brilliantly it's always compelling to watch. I am not suggesting that this film will be for everyone, but with an average of three out of five stars on film rating sites such as imdb and rotten tomatoes it's definitely watchable, and effectively demonstrates how to stretch a budget. Thus, I leave you with the trailer: