''Aniara'' is a 2018
science fiction film
Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar ...
written and directed by Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja. The film is an adaptation of the 1956
Swedish epic poem of the same name by
Harry Martinson
Harry Martinson (6May 190411February 1978) was a Swedish writer, poet and former sailor. In 1949 he was elected into the Swedish Academy. He was awarded a joint 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1974 together with fellow ...
. The film is set in a
dystopia
A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...
n future where
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
ravages Earth, prompting mass migration from
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
to
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
. When one such routine trip veers off course, the passengers of the ''Aniara'' struggle to cope with their new lives.
The film premiered at the
2018 Toronto International Film Festival
The 43rd annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 6 to 16, 2018. In June 2018, the TIFF organizers announced a program to ensure that at least 20 percent of all film critics and journalists given press accreditation to ...
and was given a theatrical release in 2019 by
Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor. It is a subsidiary of Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's 2929 Entertainment.
Magnolia was formed in 2001 by Bill Banowsky and Eamonn Bowles, and specializes in both foreign and independent films. Mag ...
.
Plot
Sometime in the future, Earth has been ravaged by natural disasters and sea-levels rise, making it largely uninhabitable. A woman (Emelie Garbers) works on board the Aniara, a luxurious spaceship that takes passengers from
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
to
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
in three weeks. Her job involves working as a "Mimarobe" within the Mima, an artificial intelligence designed to evoke viewers' experiences of Earth's lush, verdant past through a totally immersive virtual-reality experience that taps into participants' memories and emotions.
In the first week of Aniara's voyage, the ship suddenly veers off course to avoid a collision with space debris. Some of the debris pierces the hull and hits the ship's nuclear reactor, setting off an imminent meltdown and forcing the crew to eject all the ship's fuel. This results in the ship having no navigational control, no propulsion, and thus no ability to resume its original course. Captain Chefone promises the passengers and crew that they will be able to resume the trip to Mars once the ship passes a celestial body, which should happen in no more than two years. The Mimarobe's roommate, the ship's astronomer, later reveals to her that this is a lie and that there is no possibility of resuming their course.
On board, the Mimarobe finds her usually unimportant job becoming more popular and necessary than ever, as passengers crave the Mima to soothe them from claustrophobia and panic attacks. After three years the Mima becomes one of the most important functions necessary to keep calm on board the ship. With so many people bringing their horrific memories of Earth's destruction to the Mima, it becomes overwhelmed and self-destructs, committing suicide. Though the Mimarobe had asked the captain for a month of rest for the Mima, she is blamed for the machine's malfunction and imprisoned.
By the fourth year,
cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...
s have developed, and suicides lead the Mimarobe and Isagel, a former pilot, who is now the Mimarobe's lover, to be granted releases and reassigned to work. The Mimarobe and Isagel join a fertility cult dedicated to Mima, which leaves Isagel pregnant after an orgy. She suffers from depression during her pregnancy and is tempted to end the child's life after it is born. The Mimarobe wants to build a "beam-screen", a projection device acting as a mimic of Mima to alleviate Isagel's depression, while Captain Chefone forbids her from doing so and orders her to focus on educating children in the hopes that one or more of them might be able to discover a way to return them to Mars.
In the fifth year, the ship's astronomer and Isagel discover that a probe large enough to possibly contain fuel is travelling towards the Aniara, meaning that a rescue is possibly being attempted. The probe takes over a year to reach the Aniara, and upon being brought onto the ship in the sixth year, the crew quickly realize that they are unable to identify it, its origins or whether it contains fuel. While the captain orders the crew to keep working on the probe, they eventually lose hope of it being a means of rescue. The Astronomer laments that their ship is a sarcophagus, defying Captain Chefone's orders for the crew to keep a united front to prevent the passengers from losing hope. In a fit of rage, Captain Chefone shoots a taser at the Astronomer, which kills her.
The Mimarobe begins work on her projection device, eventually succeeding in projecting a waterfall onto the dark windows of the spaceship. Having succeeded, she learns that Isagel has committed suicide and has also killed the child they were raising together. Five years later, the few remaining crew celebrate the 10th anniversary of their voyage into space. While listlessly accepting an honorary medal from Captain Chefone for her creation of the beam-screen, the Mimarobe notices that his wrists are bandaged from a presumed suicide attempt. The algae tanks the passengers rely on for food and water have become contaminated. In year 24 of the voyage, a few remaining survivors, including the Mimarobe, sit cross-legged in a dimly lit room. An unidentified woman in the group rhapsodizes about the divine power of sunlight on Earth, as the ship slowly descends into final darkness.
Finally, in year of its voyage, the Aniara – derelict, frozen and devoid of human life – reaches the
Lyra
Lyra (; Latin for lyre, from Greek ''λύρα'') is a small constellation. It is one of the 48 listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and is one of the modern 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Lyra was ...
constellation and approaches a planet as verdant and welcoming as Earth was formerly.
Cast
*
Emelie Garbers
Emelie Garbers (Name at birth, née Jonsson; born 1 September, 1982) is a Swedish actress.
Her role as the ''Mimarobe'' in the 2018 science fiction film ''Aniara (film), Aniara'' garnered her a Guldbagge Award for Guldbagge Award for Best Actres ...
as the Mimarobe
* as Isagel
* Arvin Kananian as Captain Chefone
*
Anneli Martini
Anneli Martini (born 21 December 1948) is a Swedish actress. Since 1977, she has appeared in more than thirty films over four decades.
Selected filmography
References
External links
*
1948 births
Living people
People from Malmö
...
as the Astronomer
Reception
''Aniara'' received generally favorable reviews. On review aggregator ''
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
'' it holds a score of based on reviews, with an average score of . The website's critics consensus reads: "Dazzling, but a little dull, ''ANIARA''s impeccable production design is undermined by its underwhelming philosophical pondering." On ''
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
'' it holds a score of 61% based on 16 critics.
Norman Wilner at ''NOW Toronto'' says that the film "embraces the existential possibilities of sci-fi cinema".
''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', in two reviews, gave the film four stars, calling it a "stunning sci-fi eco parable" and an "eerily mesmerising outer-space odyssey" respectively. ''Flickering Myth'' characterizes Jonsson's Mimarobe as "complex and sensitive". Teo Bugbee at ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' characterized ''Aniara'' as "depressing", but also said that "the commitment to bleakness feels artistically admirable". Hollywood Reporter, on the other hand, said: "But while the themes are clear, drama is perilously missing."
''Aniara'' won the "Asteroid" Prize for Best International Film at the 2019
Trieste Science+Fiction Festival
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...
.
The film took home four awards at the 2020 Swedish ''
Guldbagge
The Guldbagge Awards ( sv, Guldbaggen, en, Gold scarab) is an official and annual Swedish film awards ceremony honoring achievements in the Swedish film industry. Winners are awarded a statuette depicting a rose chafer, better known by the nam ...
'' awards ceremony, including Best Actress in a leading role and Best Supporting Actress to Emelie Garbers (née Jonsson) and Bianca Cruzeiro respectively.
References
External links
*
* {{IMDb title
2018 films
2018 LGBT-related films
2010s science fiction adventure films
Augmented reality in fiction
Danish LGBT-related films
Danish science fiction adventure films
Existentialist films
Filicide in fiction
Films about cults
Films about death
Films based on poems
Films set in the future
Films set on spacecraft
Lesbian-related films
LGBT-related science fiction films
Murder–suicide in films
Post-apocalyptic films
Space adventure films
Swedish LGBT-related films
Swedish science fiction adventure films
2010s Swedish-language films
2018 science fiction films
Social science fiction films
2010s Swedish films