(L-R): Emer Reynolds, Director of The Farthest; Geoff Thompson, BIFS organiser; Credit: Dorte Storup

On Monday evening, the 8th annual British & Irish Film Season (BIFS) in Luxembourg moved to the Kinepolis-Kirchberg for the screening of The Farthest, a 2-hour documentary charting the Voyager space mission.

Geoff Thompson, BIFS organiser, introduced the film as being one which has many layers including the solar system, the Golden Record and the cosmos. Emer Reynolds, the director of the film, had flown over for the screening and explained that she has always had a fascination for space exploration and described herself as a "space geek". Making the film first depended on getting the money together, with the Irish Film Board the first to commit, then ZDT, ARTE, RTE and the BBC, with some American funds too.

With the film comprising part research, including archive material, part new interviews, and part CGI and visual shooting, it provided a fascinating insight into, not only the NASA space programme and the Voyager project itself, including many scientists who worked on it, but also the deeper meaning, asking philosophical questions about our existence, from the Big Bang to potentially meeting extraterrestrial life.

As the space probes (Voyager 1 and Voyager 2) passed by the four planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - and some of their moons, they were able to discover a myriad of information before the craft (Voyager 1) left the solar system as the first man-man craft to do so.

Emer Reynolds also touched on issues including the soundtrack which did not include any post-1997 music (apart from the very last song) as Voyager was launched in that year.

Those with the Ireland Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce enjoyed a reception afterwards at which they could mingle with the director and continue the dialogue from inside the screening room.

Next up for the BIFS, on Tuesday, are Pilgrimage (@ 19:00) and All The Wild Horses (21:30), both at Ciné Utopia in Luxembourg-Limpertsberg, the second with director Ivo Marloh in attendance. See www.bifilmseason.lu for details.