Calling E.T.

Are we alone in the universe? This documentary introduces us to members of a colourful company of scientists and researchers who try to find an answer to this question, for example by searching for signals in the noise picked up by the Arecibo radio telescope, which hangs above the Puerto Rican jungle like a giant safety net. Others within this SETI group engage in more philosophical issues or contemplate how to communicate with an intelligence that will be as strange to us as we are to whales or ants. The flag to celebrate the first contact is already standby, but will it be raised on behalf of all humanity? It turns out there is a flaming row within SETI and one Russian scientist was not admitted as a member, probably because he wanted to send his own messages into space. Some consider this dangerous. We had better keep quiet. Look what happened to the Native Americans. In all its splendour, the star-spangled sky domes the earthly landscapes and cityscapes, and remains silent.