Aniara

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DarkImbecile
Ask me about my visible cat breasts
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 6:24 pm
Location: Albuquerque, NM

Aniara

#1 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri Jul 26, 2019 11:25 am

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Fleeing an ecological disaster past the point of no return, what’s left of humanity must escape the hell on Earth they’ve created and fly to the stars. Giant interstellar cruise liners, outfitted with every luxury money can buy, take the human race on a three-week journey to their new home: Mars.

On one such space liner, a woman known only as Mimaroben (Emelie Jonsson) assists the passengers as they use MIMA, an advanced AI, to lose themselves in memories of a time when the earth still thrived. Days into their voyage, disaster strikes the ship; debris throws them off course, depletes their fuel and cuts their comms. As the ship floats aimlessly through space with no sign of rescue, MR holds on to hope as society crumbles around her. She looks past certain doom to find a way to help her fellow survivors live, love and do whatever is necessary to hold on to their humanity.

Based on the iconic poem by Swedish Nobel laureate Harry Martinson, Aniara explores the challenges faced by humankind with a deeply compassionate eye. Featuring a career-making star performance from Jonsson, Aniara is a “Masterful Example Of Smart, Relevant Sci-Fi Cinema” (Forbes).

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
  • High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray™ presentation
  • 5.1 DTS-HD master audio and lossless stereo audio
  • Optional English subtitles
  • New interview with directors Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja
  • Interview with production designer Maja-Stina Åsberg
  • Interview with sound designer Calle Wachtmeister
  • Interview with VFX supervisor Andreas Wicklund
  • The Unliving (Återfödelsen), an award-winning 30-minute short film by Lilja and Kågerman and starring Emelie Jonsson, about the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Image gallery
  • Reversible sleeve featuring new and original artwork
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by Anne Billson

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Aniara

#2 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Jul 26, 2019 1:02 pm

Very excited to get the chance to see this. Here's the trailer. Apparently there was an opera version made for Swedish television back in 1960!

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Adam X
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 5:04 am

Re: Aniara

#3 Post by Adam X » Sat Jul 27, 2019 4:32 am

That trailer makes it look a lot more interesting than the teaser I found. Just, whatever you do, don't let yourself get drawn into looking at the comments below. Oh, the irony.

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Aniara

#4 Post by zedz » Sat Jul 27, 2019 5:06 am

It’s a really good film: basically “The Love Boat Goes to Hell”. The filmmakers pack an amazing amount into a modest run time and make great use of what must have been a similarly modest budget. And it has
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the sourest happy ending I’ve ever seen.

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Hopscotch
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:30 pm

Re: Aniara

#5 Post by Hopscotch » Thu Aug 01, 2019 2:02 pm

The poem this movie is adapted from is fascinating and available here.

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Murdoch
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:59 pm
Location: Upstate NY

Re: Aniara

#6 Post by Murdoch » Sun Oct 13, 2019 4:55 pm

I caught this on Hulu and it's a devastating film, one that doesn't rely on twists but shows its cards early on to signal to viewers where everything is headed.
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It reminded me of Melancholia in that sense, but rather than the lead character voicing what the end holds, the writers take every chance they can to upend any possible hope of our characters returning alive to their destination - the theory of using a planet's gravitational field to boomerang back to Mars is shot down behind closed doors soon after it's announced to the public, the astronomer using the bubble in the glass of water to illustrate the futility of their travel, the suicide of the lead's lover and killing of her child. I admire the film for its directness, even if it's not easy to swallow - that you are watching these characters' slow march toward death. Eventually, you're forced to recognize the meaningless of the characters themselves as the story flashes forward to cultists chanting in the ruined interior of the ship, no recognizable person among them to anchor viewers in the familiar. As the film concludes, we're left with the image of rot and decay, the once immaculate ship left to deteriorate and the passengers mere broken bones floating around silently.

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The Curious Sofa
Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2019 6:18 am

Re: Aniara

#7 Post by The Curious Sofa » Thu Oct 24, 2019 4:31 am

I enjoyed this enough to wish it had been far better. The premise is great for a space opera, but the running time is far too short to do its epic scope justice. The theme of a justifiably doomed mankind never develops beyond the most basic. This should have been a three hour movie or even better a mini-series to give the characters and the amount of time it covers some space to breathe. The film rushes from one episode to the next as it drops in on the Aniara every few years to flatly outline the absurdities of mankind, from consumerism to religion, without much nuance. What should be a large ensemble cast are thinly sketched in caricatures, from the the astronomer who loses hope early on to the out-of-his-depth captain. Even the Mimarobe remains opaque. Major events, like
SpoilerShow
the destruction of the Mima, the dashed hope of the space probe, even the death of Mimarobe's partner and child
pass with little impact.

Aniara calls to mind other visionary space operas like Solaris and 2001 but it is directed like a TV movie. If your premise is a clunking metaphor for the futility of human existence and mankind's continued inability to transcend that, then you have to do more than be so on the nose about it. Its literary source is an epic poem, so the film should have found a more impressionist cinematic vocabulary to do justice to that, instead of opting for a naturalistic approach.

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