Starring Emelie Jonsson, Bianca Cruzeiro, Arvin Kananian, Anneli Martini

Directed by Pella Kagerman

Edinburgh International Film Festival

 

A spaceship carrying settlers to Mars is blown off course taking its crew and passengers on a journey of discovery…

Based upon a 1956 epic poem by Swedish author Harry Martinson, Aniara is that rare thing – a space-set science fiction movie that is packed with genuine science fiction ideas, the kind of thing usually relegated to novels and not often seen in big screen entertainment that prefers to go for good vs. evil conflicts, out-of-control robots, and malevolent aliens. Aniara has none of those clichés, but it does contain some genuinely interesting science fictional ideas.

A cruise ship in space embarks upon a three week trip to Mars, taking optimistic settlers who are fleeing an environmentally-damaged Earth to what they hope will be a safe new home. When a piece of space junk hits the ship, it becomes necessary to eject the nuclear fuel rods to prevent the engine exploding. Now way off course, the crew and passengers of the Aniara face an uncertain future.

The central character is known as MR (Emelie Jonsson), the ‘Mimaroben’. She is the curator of a VR-like experience called ‘Mima’ that induces in participants visions of the natural Earth as it once was. As the ship contains restaurants, bowling alleys, concert halls, and endless malls (among other diversions), she finds little take up of her rather specialist offering before the accident. Afterwards, as the people onboard Aniara struggle to come to terms with their seemingly-hopeless situation, they more and more crave a glimpse of the Earth they have left far behind.

The problem is that Mima is an organic computer that generates the visions by interfacing with the human mind. The despair from the passengers gradually builds up as they face five or more years lost in space before a hoped-for rescue ship might find them, and Mima overheats and explodes, depriving those who have come to rely on it of even that brief respite from their bleak shipboard reality. As MR herself has become dependent upon the machine, secretly using it at night when the public have gone, she is blamed for its destruction and made a scapegoat.

Years pass aboard the Ariana, first one at a time, then in five year jumps. Things deteriorate onboard, with people having to live off algae when the food supplies eventually run out. The captain (Arvin Kananian) at first attempted to keep hope alive by suggesting the ship could slingshot around a ‘celestial object’ after just a few years and so head back to Earth, but a cynical astronomer-cum-poet (Anneli Martini) begins to spread doubts. She is soon silenced (permanently), and the captain institutes a reign-of-terror to contain dissent. Suicides soar, hedonism breaks out, and weird cults emerge, some based around polymorphously perverse sex practices, praying for the restoration of Mima. Others simply crave the light of a star, any star. MR and her girlfriend, pilot Isagel (Bianca Cruzeiro) are locked in the brig, alongside others who don’t play by the new rules. However, as time passes, more hands are needed to do the work of maintaining the ship and both women are put to new tasks. Then a mysterious giant cylinder is located in space – is it a survival package from home, maybe new fuel rods, or something else entirely…?

Aniara might sound like heavy-going – a sub-titled Swedish/Danish sci-fi packed with high-concept ideas – but it really isn’t. The characters are real and fascinating, at home with their environment until they realise they are trapped within it for an indeterminate period. It is then, based upon their response and ways of coping (or not) that they are defined. As generations grow up on the ship, their allegiance to an Earth they never knew and to their parents’ ways is thin. Aniara looks and sounds great, but perhaps falls at the final hurdle as it reaches for the existentialist impact of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and doesn’t quite get there. The film projects humankind forward, but in the end – like all the best science fiction – Aniara is about humanity in the here and now.

Verdict: A gripping and chilling vision of humanity adrift, Aniara is packed with genuine science fiction concepts but puts humans at the centre of its story, 8/10

Brian J. Robb

 

Aniara was screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and is released in cinemas and On Demand from 30th August