‘Trillion’: What’s the Joaquin Phoenix Exec-Produced Film About? You’ll Only Find Out at the Very End

A woman walks barefoot over jagged rocks by the sea in a location we can’t quite place immediately. Wearing a white dress, her face is hidden beneath the brim of a floppy hat. She walks and walks, sometimes carrying a large jute bag over her shoulder. In his new feature, the black-and-white Trillion, filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky tells a minimalist story, but he is hoping for maximum impact.

Described as “a cinematic and wordless interpretation of the Myth of Sisyphus” in collaboration with an artist using the name K49814, Trillion world premieres on Sunday in the Envision Competition of this year’s International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Its executive producers include none other than Joaquin Phoenix, along with Susan Rockefeller, Frank Lehmann, Fridrik Mar, and Kaja Bjelke.

What unfolds in Trillion over 80 wordless minutes feels like a mystery and an experience, enticing viewers to try and piece together what…