OFFF Barcelona Opens with This Beautiful, Dystopian Short Film Set in Two Time Frames

Mill+ director Ilya Abulkhanov returned to headline OFFF Barcelona, a decade after opening the iconic festival with his memorable OFFF title sequence. Since then, Abulkhanov has gone on to have an international career spanning multiple continents; made up of challenging, graphically-driven projects across the feature film, music, gaming and advertising industries. He is now a leader within Mill+, the integrated production team of Directors, Designers & Creative Technologists, focused on concept-to-delivery creative partnerships. In his highly-anticipated OFFF appearance, Abulkhanov discussed the inspiration that led to the film’s creation, expanding on the themes of technological traces and the fragility of human projects.

Now in its 19th year, OFFF is regarded as one of the world’s most influential creativity festivals. OFFF consists of three-days of conferences, workshops, activities, and performances. It takes place in Barcelona annually, before appearing around the world as ‘OFFF on Tour.’

Abulkhanov premiered his debut short film, ARXIV (pronounced ‘archive’). The immersive sci-fi family drama is set in two time frames: the deep future, that is left with no future, and the near future, that will bring about the eventual dystopian collapse of society. Protagonist Lew Aron survives both time frames and is set to discover a potential outlet to confront his innermost desire, or what’s left of it. The story touches on aspects of reality, yearning, sacrifice and the conditional human capacity to (re)imagine; whilst also serving as a thought-provoking commentary on each individual’s role in our collective future.

Abulkhanov comments: “It was a privilege to return to OFFF, after showcasing my work there a decade ago. I was thrilled to share my journey and debut such an experimental project. ARXIV wouldn’t have been possible without the huge collaboration from Director of Photography, Sean Bagley and VFX Supervisor, Lee Nelson. It also required an extraordinary team within Mill+, given the ambitious live action shoot, visual effects, design and animation required to build the ARXIV world.”

Zu Al-Kadiri, executive producer at Mill+ US, adds: “The release of ARXIV highlights the work we do at The Mill to create an infrastructure that elevates and promotes creative ambition. We have some incredible talent within Mill+ and it’s exciting to share Ilya’s unique vision with both OFFF and the wider world.”

Héctor Ayuso, founder of OFFF, says: “The Mill has always had a special place at OFFF. When I found out that Ilya Abulkhanov would be leading OFFF’s official Open Film for 2019, I got a major ten year throwback. Ilya had worked on the OFFF Titles back in 2009 together with Prologue and Kyle Cooper, I have said it before and I will say it again, the OFFF 2009 Titles were a dream come true. There couldn’t be a better moment to have Ilya back at OFFF. When you start to really think about it, OFFF has had so much history and The Mill has always been part of it. Their work has left a massive impact on all of us and ARXIV will be a precious piece in the OFFF archive.”

OFFF is running April 25th - 27th in Barcelona, Spain with Google, Vimeo and Gris also appearing. Mill CG Design Director, Will MacNeil, will also take to the stage to explore how procedural and generative design impacts the broader design process by comparing a range of The Mill's latest data driven experiences and installations. Finally, recent Mill+ signing GMUNK, on the roster for Europe & Asia, will share some exclusive news with the OFFF audience.