Aniara (2018)

 

Genre: Sci-Fi/ Drama

Time: 1h 46mins

Directors: Hugo Lilja, Pella Kågerman

Quick Summary: A spaceship carrying settlers to Mars is knocked off course, causing the consumption-obsessed passengers to consider their place in the universe.

Full of hopelessness and despair, this film will make you terrified of space travel and I absolutely loved it. 

Something I really loved about this is it really shows you how infinite space could be. We don't know how big space is and we don't know if it stops. This hangs onto that and throws in the ultimate hopeless situation of being lost and their existence could be meaningless.  

This mainly focuses on one woman and her lifetime on the ship, but we get small peaks into other's lives. We don't actually get to hear any inner thoughts which honestly did surprise me as we only learn through spoken dialogue, but I realise this isn't about the one woman. It's about the whole ship's downward spiral into chaos. We get to watch as slowly as everyone loses it, going from being drunk all the time to killing themselves and then relying on a machine made to create a false reality for a limited time. 

The machine becomes a source of comfort and distraction for the passengers as they grapple with the hopelessness of their situation. It becomes a psychological refuge, allowing individuals to immerse themselves in their memories, momentarily forgetting the despair that surrounds them. But it shows what people do, they become greedy and abuse it causing its destruction. Even in a situation where the end is inevitable, people are selfish and ruin what small good thing they had. 

I loved how aesthetic this film looked, creating a wonderfully modern look that didn't look so "science-fiction". It felt like a real future we could achieve technology-wise.  A lot of the shots of space were so haunting, showing the bleakness the characters were faced with as most of them are huge landscape shots of the ship floating around in the pitch black. 

I did feel for the main woman we follow as she tries to create a life onboard this ship, creating a family and trying to find ways to help put the ship back on course. A lot of her hope becomes broken the longer the film goes on, as a lot of tragic and really dark things happen. Honestly, a few of them were quite upsetting to watch. On the flip side it was really interesting to watch what happens with the people the further into insanity they went. Community literally breaks apart, cults are created to worship the neverending darkness, standards and all care goes out the window. 

My main complaint about this film is that it is really slow with the pacing. Sure, it is to focus on what is happening and give us time to absorb the crumbling of society onboard the ship, but a good handful of the scenes just go on forever. As well, even though I did really like the time-skips, the last couple of them I wish they let us see what was happening for just a bit longer as a lot of the impact was sort of missed through how short they were. 

Complaint aside this is a very good story about humans and the vast emptiness of space. It's very thought-provoking and very emotional. It can be a hard watch due to how sombre and depressing it is, but honestly, it's very well worth it.

9/10

"There is protection from nearly everything. But there is no protection from mankind."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ P.S  HAPPY NEW YEAR  *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧