MOVIE REVIEW: Aniara

I have recently been checking out some new movies. I found this list by The Film School Rejects and decided to choose my next viewing from there.

My first pick is Aniara, a Swedish-Danish high-concept sci-fi film that is based on a poem of the same name by the Nobel laureate, Harry Martinson. I don't know what it is about Swedish productions but I've never been wrong with the ones I do pick. What water do they drink over there? lol Anywhoo --

THE STORY

Aniara follows a group of immigrants on their way to a colony in Mars. Leaving behind an Earth devastated by natural disasters as brought on by climate change, the passengers travel through space onboard the eponymous ship, Aniara, a floating luxury hotel and mall that comes equipped with all the best in entertainment and tech. One of these techs is a semi-sentient A.I. known as MIMA programmed to provide a realistic simulation of life on Earth before its destruction. 

MIMA is operated by a technician known as a mimarobe, or MR, the name of the main character. MR is just another employee of the ship and the MIMA is just another diversion designed to entertain the passengers during what should have been a three-week cruise-like journey to Mars. That is, until disaster strikes when the ship encounters debris, throwing the ship off course and causing it to drift in space for an indeterminate period of time. Suddenly, the MIMA becomes a source of comfort, and MR the ship's unofficial therapist, for the passengers who gradually come to realise the futility of their fate.

THE REVIEW

No matter from which angle you look at it, this movie deals with a heavy subject matter. An allegory to climate change, its devastating effects and the fate of humanity. A microcosm of human life, the ups and downs, hopes and despair. A study of human character facing a persistent void. A muted space opera peopled by tyrants and empaths and cult leaders and their desperate followers, all trying to escape the meaningless of it all. 

It is sad. It is persistently bleak. It is thought-provoking. But treated with such deft light-handedness, it stays above the drama. 

MR as the main character is grounded by the actress, Emelie Jonsson, who looks perfectly ordinary for the role. MR is the everyman, the audience stand-in. We are like her in that she starts the film with  the attitude of someone on their way to work on a Monday morning. Our mood perks up a bit when we encounter our crush on the elevator but as the day wears on, we can't help but get caught up in the usual daily grind. 

So we're there, going through all the motions, when our day is brought to a crushing halt. Our space ship has been hit by debris, and now we're doomed to wander space in this floating, luxurious sarcophagus. 

At first, everybody around us tries to distract themselves, taking advantage of all that the ship has to offer, continuing the consumer life we've been so used to back on Earth. Food, water and air are not an issue. The ship is self-sustaining through algae culture. Rather the greatest threat to mankind is boredom, and its not-so-distant cousin, despair. 

MR tries her best to help with the use of MIMA's technology. A routine is established. Jobs are assigned. Times are allocated. But as days pass into weeks, weeks into months, months into years, MIMA becomes overworked and self-destructs, thus, removing mankind's last remaining succour. It is like a blanket lifting and everybody finds themselves staring into the abyss, who stares back unblinkingly. 

Aniara is not a depressing film. But it is a film about despair.

THE SCORE 

Story - 10

Sound - 7

Cinematography - 7

Picture - 8

Special Effects - 7

Acting - 9 

Overall - 8/10