''Proxima'' is a 2019 French drama film, directed by

Alice Winocour Alice Winocour (born 13 January 1976) is a French screenwriter and director. Life and career Winocour was born in Paris, France, to a Jewish family. After studying screenwriting at La Fémis, Winocour made three short films and wrote the script ...

. The films stars

Eva Green Eva Gaëlle Green (, ; born ) is a French actress and model. The daughter of actress Marlène Jobert, she began her career in theatre before making her film debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's '' The Dreamers'' (2003). She achieved international reco ...

as Sarah, a woman trying to balance her work as an

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

preparing for a year-long stint on the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

with her family life as mother to an eight-year-old daughter Stella (Zélie Boulant). It also stars

Lars Eidinger Lars Eidinger (; born 21 January 1976) is a German actor. Eidinger started his career at Deutsches Theater in 1997. Before his breakthrough, he played minor roles in German television shows like ''Schloss Einstein'' (2002) and '' Berlin, Berlin ...

as Thomas, her ex-husband and Stella's father;

Matt Dillon Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including an Oscar and Grammy nomination. Dillon made his feature film debut in '' Over the Edge'' (1979) and established himself as a te ...

as Mike, her colleague, who is dismissive of her abilities as an astronaut; and

Sandra Hüller Sandra Hüller (; born 30 April 1978) is a German actress. She gained critical praise for her portrait of Anneliese Michel in Hans-Christian Schmid's drama ''Requiem'' (2006), and is best known internationally for her starring role in Maren Ad ...

as Wendy, a psychologist helping to guide Sarah and Stella through the complexities of the situation. The film was shot in various real training facilities of the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

and

Roscosmos The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

such as Star City and

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...

Plot

Sarah is a French woman who has been dreaming and training her whole life to be an astronaut. She learns that she is a late addition to the Proxima crew, an

mission which will be the final precursor before a mission to Mars. While Sarah is thrilled to be going she struggles with leaving Stella, her daughter for whom she is the primary caregiver after separating from her spouse, Thomas. Despite her worries, she leaves Stella with Thomas and prepares for her mission. In addition to being a late comer to the mission Sarah is also the only woman on the Mars crew. She is met with open hostility by the American captain, Mike, who lets her know that he prefers the male substitute training to be her replacement. However Sarah gradually wins his respect as he watches her determination while training. During training Stella is allowed to visit Sarah once. Sarah insists that special allowances be made to accommodate her daughter and allow them more time together. While the meeting initially goes well it ends badly as Stella becomes anxious and bored and runs away, once again causing friction between Sarah and Mike, who berates Sarah for her actions. The following day Stella leaves while Sarah is still sleeping. Increasingly struggling with the emotional toll of leaving, Sarah is surprised when Mike attempts to cheer her up, telling her that it is impossible to be a perfect mother or astronaut and they are only human. Later, at the last meeting before Sarah and the other astronauts go into a two week quarantine before leaving for space Sarah is devastated when Stella and Thomas miss their flight and her last opportunity to see her little girl in person before leaving earth. Sarah and Stella are able to see each other a final time, but this time it is through a pane of glass as Sarah is in quarantine. Stella reminds her mother that she promised they would be able to see the rocket she was leaving on together but Sarah broke her promise. A devastated Sarah sneaks out of quarantine and awakens Stella and takes her to see the rocket early in the morning. That evening the rocket launches with Sarah onboard with a picture of Stella by her side. On Earth a teary eyed Thomas and a smiling Stella watch the rocket launch.

Cast

as Sarah Loreau *Zélie Boulant-Lemesle as Stella Akerman Loreau *

as Mike Shannon *

as Thomas Akerman *

as Wendy Hauer *Aleksey Fateev as Anton Ocheivsky

Accolades

* César Awards, France 2020 - Best Actress -

- Nominee César * Göteborg Film Festival 2020 - International Competition -

- Nominee Dragon Award * Lumiere Awards, France 2020 - Best Actress -

- Nominee Lumiere Award *Miami Film Festival 2020 -

- Nominee Knight Marimbas Award * San Sebastián International Film Festival 2019 -

- Winner SIGNIS Award - Special Mention * San Sebastián International Film Festival 2019 -

- Winner Special Mention of the Jury * San Sebastián International Film Festival 2019 -

- Winner Special Prize of the Jury * San Sebastián International Film Festival 2019 - Best Film -

- Nominee Golden Seashell * Toronto International Film Festival 2019 -

- Winner Platform Prize - Honorable Mention * Toronto International Film Festival 2019 -

- Nominee Platform Prize

Release

''Proxima'' premiered in the

Platform Prize The Platform Prize is an annual film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to films of "high artistic merit that also demonstrate a strong directorial vision."2019 Toronto International Film Festival The 44th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 September 2019. The opening gala was the documentary film '' Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band'', directed by Daniel Roher, and the festival closed with a ...

and received an honorable mention from the jury. It was shortlisted to be the French submission for the

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

Academy Award for Best International Feature Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

Critical response

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

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 ...

calculated an approval rating of , and an average rating of from reviews, with the critical consensus stating: "''Proxima'' sometimes struggles to communicate its themes, but worthy intentions and a powerful central performance from Eva Green more than compensate."

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 ...

rated it 71 out of 100, based on review from 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* * 2019 drama films 2019 films French drama films Films directed by Alice Winocour Films scored by Ryuichi Sakamoto Films about astronauts 2010s French films {{2010s-France-film-stub