Patema Inverted

Patema Inverted (サカサマのパテマ, 2013) is a Japanese anime adventure from director Yasuhiro Yoshiura, available to watch online on iFILM. After a long-ago disaster split humanity in two, gravity now pulls each people in opposite directions — one lives sealed underground, the other on the surface, and for either side the open sky means an endless fall.

Patema, a curious girl from the underground tunnels, tumbles into the inverted world above and meets Aiga, a boy from a society where looking up at the sky is treated as sin. When they hold on to each other, one keeps the other from dropping away: his ground is her bottomless sky, and the reverse is just as true. Aiga's authoritarian regime brands Patema a sinner, and the two are forced to run. Yukiyo Fujii voices Patema, with Nobuhiko Okamoto as Aiga.

Yoshiura builds the whole film on one bold trick — reversed gravity — and wrings from it both vertigo-inducing visuals and a tender story of two lonely kids clinging together. A treat for fans of thoughtful sci-fi that puts an idea first. Stream Patema Inverted (2013) online on iFILM.