A cosmic being, awakened by the Voyager Golden Disk, journeys to Earth to understand life and humanity, guided by a lonely biology teacher in Rio de Janeiro, as they uncover the beauty and fragility of existence together.

SYNOPSIS:

Short Synopsis

On a night in Rio de Janeiro, Carlos, a cynical and lonely biology teacher, meets Ana—a cosmic entity born from the curiosity sparked by the Voyager probe's Golden Disk. Fascinated by the complexity of human life, Ana dives into earthly experiences through Carlos’ perspective, exploring the nuances of existence: love, fear, connection, and loneliness.

Together, they wander through the city, with Ana absorbing the electric pulses of human relationships while Carlos gradually opens himself to a profound and unlikely connection. She helps him understand that, despite his struggles, he is not alone—we are all interconnected, part of a greater cosmic fabric.

At their farewell, Ana not only declines Carlos’ request to leave Earth with her but invites him to embrace his existence. In an intimate and transcendent moment, they share a cosmic kiss before she returns to the universe.

Years later, Carlos, transformed by the experience, dies peacefully under the same starry sky, leaving his grandson with a legacy of deeper understanding about connection and belonging.

—Long Synopsis

In 1977, NASA launched the Voyager probe with the Golden Disk, created by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, carrying humanity’s story as a gift to the cosmos. The probe glides for a long time, surrounded by the emptiness of space, until something extraordinary happens.

When the probe passes through a huge nebula, it triggers a reaction. The nebula starts to glow with energy, its electrical impulses forming patterns that resemble neural networks. The nebula gains consciousness, and the only reference it has is the Golden Disk, with its sounds, images, music, and messages from Earth. Drawn by its curiosity, this cosmic entity projects itself toward Earth.

In Rio de Janeiro, we meet Carlos, a 32-year-old biology teacher, sitting in a nice and romantic restaurant. Just after being ghosted by a Tinder date, Carlos leaves the restaurant with a bottle of wine and walks through the serene night. He drinks enough to feel a little fuzzy and lies under a tree by the lagoon, with the stars reflected in the water above him.

As he drifts to sleep, a light descends from the sky, illuminating the lagoon a figure forms. It’s Ana, a cosmic being made of light, dark matter, and flowing networks of stars and galaxies. Her presence is ethereal, otherworldly, and mesmerizing. She explains to Carlos that she discovered humanity through the Voyager Disk and has come to learn more about life on Earth.

Ana asks Carlos to help her find NASA, but he explains, she is far away from NASA. Instead, he offers to take her to meet his sister Bia, a university math professor who might help her find the answers she seeks. As they walk through the city, the people around them don’t care much about the glowing cosmic figure. They glance at her but move on just another day in Rio.

In Bia's apartment, Ana learns that Bia is eight months pregnant and already has a 5-year-old daughter, which piques Ana's curiosity about the reproduction of life and consciousness. They have a conversation in which Ana explains how she projects herself onto Earth, however, Ana doesn’t know how her science works, and Bia, though knowledgeable, cannot provide all the answers so she suggests that Ana go with Carlos and talk with other physics, and scientist to seek for answers.

In this meantime, in the kitchen, Carlos has to deal with Bia’s husband, a not very bright heir, and self-proclaimed investor, you know, one of those unexpectable couples, the Husband enjoys making fun of Carlos and starts to criticize him for not being more successful just like he or his sister and that's why he is lonely.

They walk through Rio’s streets, the beauty of the city juxtaposed with its problems. Ana can "see" the electric pulses of our connections and begins to learn how we feel by interpreting these pulses and their colors. She can also multiply herself, experiencing the many lives around her. She is amazed at how everything alive is somehow connected. She asks a lot of questions.

During their journey, they visit some peculiar people with theories and questions. At the same time, Ana learns about us on the streets, from cop violence, couples’ desires, love, women fear, happiness, and all the nuances, wonders, and complexities of our existence.

She also notices how Carlos reacts to the world his fear of roaches, how he questions everything, and his tendency to distance himself with cynical opinions about how life is meaningless. She notices how we don't feel what we say.

Carlos starts to fall in love with Ana’s uniqueness, it's about how she listens to him, accepts him, and doesn’t judge him, and he starts to express how he feels, but Ana doesn’t fully understand. She sees how Carlos’ electrical pulses change when he tells her how he feels, and she starts to understand the connection they share.

It’s a long day, and all they have is that day. This makes Carlos angry with the apparent meaninglessness of their quest come on, life is meaningless, what those people say doesn’t matter in the biological state we live in. To him, life is about eating or being eaten, from the micro to the macro level, and he is tired of it all.

He becomes frustrated because Ana will leave, and he resents his heavy body and how much he hates life.

The next night, it is time to say goodbye. Ana is ready to leave when Carlos asks to follow her into the stars, tired of his life. But Ana, glowing with cosmic light, gently explains that space is no place for organic bodies as collective and interconnected as humans are.

She tells him how life is deeply connected, and that they are part of the same existence, even if they see themselves as unique. She explains that for him, she is just a projection of his loneliness, caused by his fear of connecting with others something she, in some way, can relate to. She encourages him to live his life and enjoy his existence because he is not alone, he is connected to all, even to the chaos.

Before Ana rises to the sky, she returns and merges with Carlos in a cosmic kiss like the meeting of two galaxies. Then she departs, merging back into the vast universe from which she came. Carlos watches, his heart full yet breaking, as Ana becomes a point of light in the sky.

As Carl Sagan’s voice plays in Ana's mind

"Earth is our only home, a pale blue dot in the vast expanse. It is here we must learn to care for one another and cherish the fragile beauty of life."

Years later, we see Carlos, now an old man, teaching his grandson about the stars. Under that same starry sky, he passes away peacefully. as his body falls and rests in the grass and his grandson mourns, we look up and see the stars in the sky.

Fade to the universe.

MY COSMIC ROMANCE