SXSW 2012: Low Budget Sci-Fi Shines Again in Nir Paniry’s ‘Extracted’

Nir Paniry’s Extracted, playing at SXSW, is a classic case on how indie science fiction works. Focusing more on narrative and character than blockbuster explosions or motion captured creatures, Paniry wraps his story tightly around its central premise and leaves little fat around the meat. Extracted moves with a purpose, setting up the characters and conflict quickly so that there’s plenty of room for the second and third acts to breath. The non-linear structure combined with the vast amount of time within which the story takes place create a scope that no amount of computer generated, alien landscapes could achieve. To give you an idea of what it’s about: A scientist invents a way to look into someone’s memories, to find those hidden moments we keep locked in our brains and travel through them, experience them first-hand along with the subject. The inventor of the project finds himself in an uncomfortable …