&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/37343?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Another+Earth+at+Oktoberfest+%7C+Carole+Jahme%3AArticle%3A1647986&amp;ch=Science&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Science%2CScience+fiction+and+fantasy+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm%2CFestivals+%28Culture%29%2CSpace+%28Science%29%2CPsychology+%28Science%29&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Carole+Jahme&amp;c7=11-Oct-15&amp;c8=1647986&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review%2CBlogpost&amp;c11=Science&amp;c13=&amp;c25=Science+blog+Notes+%26+Theories+%28reporters%27+blog%29&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FScience%2FScience+fiction+and+fantasy&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Carole Jahme explores the far-side of science fiction and fantasy at Oktoberfest, including a preview of Another Earth&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This year has seen a bumper crop of big-screen sci-fi, including &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/feb/23/apollo-18-trailer-flick-teaser&quot;&gt;Apollo 18&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/feb/13/paul-review-simon-pegg-nick-frost&quot;&gt;Paul&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/aug/11/rise-planet-of-apes-review&quot;&gt;Rise of the Planet of the Apes&lt;/a&gt;, with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/sep/12/contagion-steven-soderbergh-movie&quot;&gt;Contagion&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/&quot;&gt;In Time&lt;/a&gt; soon to be released. Science fiction grosses millions of dollars at the box office, but where do the true aficionados go to see more refined, unusual sci-fi offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sci-Fi-London&#039;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sci-fi-london.com/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Oktoberfest&lt;/a&gt; gives an opportunity for smaller, cult, and possibly more intelligent sci-fi and fantasy films to be viewed on the big screen. It is curated by ebullient sci-fi enthusiast Louis Savy, who founded the festival 10 years ago. To encourage new filmmakers, every year he organises a &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sci-fi-london.com/festival/2011/48-hour-film-challenge&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;48-hour film challenge&lt;/a&gt;&quot; in which teams compete to create a sci-fi film in just two days &ndash; Gareth Edwards, director of the excellent &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/dec/02/monsters-review?INTCMP=SRCH&quot;&gt;Monsters&lt;/a&gt; started his film career here.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Enduring sci-fi themes are evident in the big box office films listed above. We are still voyaging to the moon, still comparing ourselves to similar but significantly different &quot;others&quot;, still fleeing viruses and aliens and still facing up to mortality. But I went along to Oktoberfest at the Odeon cinema in London&#039;s Camden Town last Saturday night looking for something new.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I immediately noticed that the audience consisted mostly of men. I asked Georgie Knight, &lt;a href=&quot;http://twitter.com/Londonfoodlink&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;a foodie&lt;/a&gt; and the festival&#039;s sci-fi DJ (the pride of her collection is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj7TNNb_W3U&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Cantina bar theme from the first Star Wars&lt;/a&gt; movie) why she thought so few women were attracted to the festival? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She didn&#039;t know, but explained why she&#039;s such a fan of Oktoberfest: &quot;It is the only chance to see films of all calibres from around the world that may not get a commercial release. Science fiction examines contemporary and sensitive topics and allows the exploration of &#039;what if&#039; scenarios &hellip; I love the atmosphere at the festival&#039;s Saturday all nighters, with punters dressing up as their favourite characters.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Saturday programme had started in the afternoon and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sci-fi-london.com/festival/2011/oktoberfest/programme&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;was scheduled to finish on Sunday morning&lt;/a&gt;. I didn&#039;t last through the night, or dress up as Yoda, but I did see a few of the films on offer. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Savy personally introduces each film. His humour and passion are infectious and as the lights dim you feel welcome and in good company.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thedividethemovie.com/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Divide&lt;/a&gt;, set in a nuclear Armageddon, is an unrelentingly bleak American offering. Rosanna Arquette and sci-fi favourite Kyle Reese (Aliens/Terminator) were unable to save this film from its clich&eacute;d characters and obvious plot. Its take-home message? Don&#039;t get caught in a nuclear bunker with people you can&#039;t trust.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A sucker for punishment, I was back on Sunday afternoon to see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sushi-typhoon.com/films/helldriver&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Helldriver&lt;/a&gt;, a gory Japanese zombie slasher with no introspection or subtext. It was so awful it was brilliant.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Next came &lt;a href=&quot;http://angelsandairwaves.com/?project_id=3&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Love&lt;/a&gt;. In the sporadic tradition of pop groups producing films, this is a movie produced and scored by the American punk band Angels and Airwaves. Apparently inspired by the writings of Carl Sagan, Love tells the story of the renewed hope of an astronaut lost in space.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Knight&#039;s Oktoberfest favourite was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fase7.com/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Spanish Phase 7&lt;/a&gt;, &quot;an all-too-believable pandemic plot with talk of a new world order, good actors and a dose of black humour.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;My highlight was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.foxsearchlight.com/anotherearth/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Another Earth&lt;/a&gt;, directed by Mike Cahill, where I finally found the newness I sought. Carl Sagan&#039;s former teaching assistant, the astrophysicist &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_E._Berendzen&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Richard E Berendzen&lt;/a&gt; was used as a consultant on the film and has a cameo role.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The premise is that with billions of planets in multitudinal universes, it is possible there is a planet out there that is an exact copy of Earth, having developed at the same time and in the same way. Berendzen discusses the possibilities with Cahill &lt;a href=&quot;http://content.foxsearchlight.com/inside/node/4938&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another Earth &ndash; shot beautifully with a compelling lead performance from Brit Marling and a haunting score &ndash; cleverly takes the familiar parallel universe idea to a new, inverted conclusion. Here nothing is idealised and the other you is a more sophisticated and refined you &ndash; a better you. Supposing the two Earths were brought together and the two of you were to meet?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The film doesn&#039;t tackle the physics of what would happen if another planet travelled into our solar system, but instead focuses on the metaphysics of existentialism. These aliens are almost exactly you; the only difference is that they are superior. Could the better you heal you and help you to rise to your higher-self? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An uncanny valley indeed. This is a film with take-away value. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118031128&quot;&gt;It won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize&lt;/a&gt; for science fiction filmmaking at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and will have a limited theatrical release in the UK from December. Make sure you catch it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sci-Fi-London returns next year, 1-7 May, at the BFI South Bank and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bafta.org/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Bafta&lt;/a&gt;. With &quot;geek girl&quot; events planned, hopefully more ladies will join in this time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/sciencefictionandfantasy&quot;&gt;Science fiction and fantasy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/festivals&quot;&gt;Festivals&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/space&quot;&gt;Space&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/psychology&quot;&gt;Psychology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/carole-jahme&quot;&gt;Carole Jahme&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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