Kaena: The Prophecy

Kaena: The Prophecy
Promotional poster for US release.
Directed by	Chris Delaporte Pascal Pinon
Produced by	Marc du Pontavice
Written by	Patrick Daher Chris Delaporte Tarik Hamdine
Starring	Kirsten Dunst Richard Harris Anjelica Huston Keith David Ciara Janson
Music by	Farid Russlan
Edited by	Bénédicte Brunet
Production company	Xilam
Distributed by	StudioCanal (France) Destination Films (USA) TVA
Release date	June 2003 (France) July 2004 (USA)
Running time	85 min
Country	France/Canada
Language	French, English

Kaena: The Prophecy (French: Kaena: La prophétie) is a 2003 French-Canadian computer-generated fantasy movie. The United States release of the film is distributed by Destination Films and features the voices of Kirsten Dunst, Richard Harris (in his last role before his death), Anjelica Huston, Keith David and Ciara Janson.

Chris Delaporte started work on the film in 1995 after leaving at Eric Chahi's company Amazing Studio halfway through development of the Studio's only game Heart of Darkness. Originally intended as a video game, the project spun off into a film. There was however a tie-in video game produced.

It was both critical and commercial failure.

The film begins with an alien ship crash landing on a desert planet. The alien survivors, known as Vecarians, are quickly killed by the planet's predatory native inhabitants, the Selenites. The ship's core, Vecanoi, survives, and from it sprouts Axis, a massive tree reaching up into space.

600 years later, a race of human-like tree-dwellers have evolved living in the branches of Axis. One of them, a young girl named Kaena (voiced by Kirsten Dunst), is an adventurous daydreamer who longs to explore the world beyond the confines of her village. Kaena's inquisitiveness is opposed as heresy by the village elder, who commands his people to stay productive and toil for the villager's gods (who are, unbeknownst to them, the Selenites living in the planet below).

Led by prophetic dreams of a world with a blue sun and plentiful water, Kaena eventually defies the elder and climbs to the top of Axis. There, she encounters the ancient alien Opaz (voiced by Richard Harris), the last survivor of the Vecarian race that crash landed on the planet centuries ago. Opaz has used his technology to evolve a race of intelligent worms to serve him and help him escape the planet. Upon learning of Kaena's dreams, Opaz enlists her help in retrieving Vecanoi, which contains the collective memory of his people.