Rent Aniara on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Pella Kagerman, Hugo Lilja, Harry Martinson (based on poem bu)
Directed by: Pella Kågerman, Hugo Lilja
Starring: Emelie Garbers, Bianca Cruzeiro, Arvin Kananian
Rated: R
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Plot
A Swedish-Danish movie where the human race leaves Earth to begin anew on Mars. After takeoff, space debris damages the ship beyond repair. As the ship drifts off course into outer space the passengers begin to lose their sanity.
Verdict
It's a depressing movie as we watch a small society devolve, hopelessness overtaking everyone. What was to be a short and luxurious journey becomes indeterminably long. We see ways the passengers cope, trying to find peace in or an escape from reality. Cults form while others focus on their job, hoping purpose will pass the time. The state of the ship provides a metaphor for society as the ship's condition declines. By the end, a once vibrant shape looks like a vacant building, long since abandoned. The crew have no desire to take care of it. Losing the illusion of control while being confined to a small ship is all it take to overturn society. The ending of the movie underscores what a tiny blip humans are in the vastness of the universe.
Watch It.
Review
Aniara is a luxury ship that transports people from Earth to Mars. It's like a giant shopping mall, reminiscent of the ship in WALL·E. In a similar fashion, Earth has been devastated. Those that can, leave. The voyage to Mars should take three weeks but a catastrophe alters their trajectory. Captain Chefone (Arvin Kananian) holds a meeting to address the "incident." While he has a plan, it's going to delay them for two years. Understandably, everyone is upset. As I was wondering how they would provide food, they have an algae system they can ramp up to sustain everyone for the duration.
The movie is so understated, with very few images of space. Most of it is watching people trying to cope. The Mima room, a virtual reality space that uses artificial intelligence, taps into your memories to create images of Earth at its prominence. It becomes a popular destination and means of coping as despair runs rampant. The woman who runs it is the closest the movie has to a protagonist. She's only called MR, Mimarobe (Emelie Garbers).
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| Emelie Garbers plasy MR (Mimarobe) |
The movie skips ahead in time as we watch the decline of the people's hopes and in turn the climate of the ship. With each jump I wondered how life had changed. With the inhabitants losing the illusion of control, the confinement breeds despair. The entire ship depends on the Mima room for an escape, even if momentary. After tapping into peoples memories that are filled with more and more misery, the mental escapes become nightmares. The one escape on the ship, no longer provides that. People have to deal with the confines of ship, trapped in the vast and endless space around them.
With each time skip the Captain seems to become more unhinged. He's becoming more of a dictator, claiming he can do whatever he wants as society collapses. He keeps lying to foster a sense of hope, but with each turn his lies are caught. The hope that the future will bring help is a lie. Mimarobe is designated to become a teacher in the hopes that the next generation can solve the problems on the ship. By this point the ship looks like an abandoned building.
With each time jump we see the measures people take to distract themselves from the inevitable. It's all in vain. The last image we see of civilization is a handful of people in a dark room. The ship has always been drifting toward the constellation Lyra. We get to see that star, though no one on the ship ever did, having died millions of years prior. The irony is that not only did the ship find a habitable planet, but with scientific advances Earth would have developed interstellar travel that would allow them to traverse long distances in a substantially shorter time, beating the ship to Lyra.
Where 2001: A Space Odyssey was the evolution of humans, this is the counterpoint. It's the de-evolution of humans lost in space with no prospects for the future. The conclusion underscores what a tiny blip humans are in the universe. The ship reaches a habitable planet millions of years after the last human on the ship has perished.
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