Acclaimed director Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Enemy, Incendies) teams up Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker for this richly textured sci-fi drama about the panic that follows a wave of mysterious spacecraft landings across the globe.

When 12 alien spacecraft land around the world, a linguistics expert Dr Banks (Amy Adams) and theoretical physicist (Jeremy Renner) are recruited by a US colonel (Forest Whitaker) to obtain the answer to one question: "What do they want?" As mankind teeters on the verge of global war, the team race against time for answers. Global in scope and lyrical in form, the film’s narrative structure shape-shifts, reflecting the changing perception of time experienced by Dr Banks as she gets closer to comprehending the unfathomable alien messages. The story is underpinned by a resonant interest in the importance of translation - in the direct challenge of decoding this new language, and in the forging of international cooperation between countries to prevent conflict.

A universe away from traditional alien invasion films, Arrival is ultimately a cinematic paean to human life – its intimacy, complexity and grandeur, and to what keeps us connected to each other – communication, memory, and the experience of love and loss.

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