For fans of artistic and slow burn horror, sit down, grab a sophisticated drink and enjoy. The film is in black and white with almost no dialogue whatsoever. We open with an upside down shot of the kind in fashion right now of the southwestern desert. Text on the screen informs the viewer that one is watching “Southwest America 1870.” Before you can say Koyaanisqatsi we cut to a tipi with two Native American women by a CG fire. Ayita (Jacquelin Arroyo) and Alona (Sewwandi) sit by the fire, content. They go inside and are joined by a man, Alo (Joseph Williams). The film spends the next ten to fifteen minutes simply showing them engaged in their lives, with a particular focus on Alona. At last, they see two green lights moving through the night sky, the sole color in the film thus far.

Where they are is a peaceful area – horses running free, an endless sky enclosing them. Strange things are occurring, however, and they grow on edge. At night an alien ship crashes somewhere nearby. Alona finds a smooth, black polyhedron. She holds it in her palm at night, seeming to both comfort and intrigue her. Kudos to the performers here who demonstrate that truly good actors don’t need dialogue but can convey everything through expression and gesture. Alo is shot, and passes away. Alona begins to track someone or something through the desert and instead discovers Europeans in a stockade. She stabs one soldier with a spear, killing him. One is made instantly aware of the larger issue of “alien invaders” and the dangers they pose. It is not the ones from the sky who will kill off Alona’s people and their culture, but the very earthbound ones behind the stockade.

Alo and Ayita dead at the hands of the whites, the girl encounters something in the night desert and the world is suddenly seen in color. She finally sees an alien and the film simply ends with this moment of contact. The future and the past contained in a single moment.

Again, a slow burn but the result is the uncanny moments paying off. The music can be a bit jarring and incongruous for the narrative, but this is nitpicking. Under the Crystal Sky is a beautiful and well-shot film. Lovely cinematography by Zach Fritz is the strength of this movie. One shot from the midpoint of the film continues to haunt me: horses and their shadows, shot from above, appearing almost alien themselves. Fritz, Hartley and Rajagopal outdo themselves in an intricately simple yet complex narrative, told well using all visual elements of the medium. A slightly better soundtrack would have made this film perfect.