Perhaps we need to look back to past decades to find, in the figure of the animated film, such as the anime of the great Miyazaki, a reflective message on the deeper questions of human existence and the contemporary world we inhabit.

That moment arrives now through French director and illustrator Ugo Bienvenu, who brings us a compelling message through the story of Arco, a boy who lives in the year 2932 and travels back in time to 2075 wearing a colorful cape in the hues of the rainbow spectrum. Through an accidental landing, he encounters Iris, a girl who sees him fall from the sky and decides to take him home to care for him and treat his injuries. This is precisely where the two worlds collide: the future (Arco) and the present (Iris).

The picture Arco brings from his time is that of a planet Earth attempting to recover from the damage caused by centuries of human destruction and pollution, making it necessary now to “let it rest” while humans live in self-sustaining homes, closer to the sky. Although technology clearly exists, there is a stronger awareness of the importance of caring for nature: the presence of gardens in every home and the similar clothing worn by all characters, with what appear to be environmentally compatible garments, are signs of this. By contrast, Iris’s present points to something markedly different and distant, closer to environmental collapse, where fierce storms and relentless wildfires unfold while homes must be protected by artificial shells against extreme conditions. Likewise, robots—moving tangentially toward a certain degree of humanization—carry out much of human labor: education, childcare, domestic work, security, and urban maintenance.