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Aniara Movie Review

Aniara is a 2018 science fiction film directed by Pella Kagerman and Hugo Lilja and starring Emelie Garbers. It’s a slow, but mostly effective genre picture.

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“There is protection from nearly everything.

But there is no protection from mankind“

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A spacecraft carries settlers to Mars after there is an apocalypse on Earth. When it strays off course, the consumption-obsessed passengers are prompted to consider their place in the universe. Based on a titular Swedish poem, the movie features a story that is so ambitious that it should have received a longer runtime and a more encompassing treatment. It’s such an intriguing premise that this execution with very few characters and perspective was quite bothersome.

With that being said, it’s still a very strong sci-fi parable that proves that European arthouse cinema can be a good fit with this genre when given a solid budget. It’s such a thematically rich story that can be understood in many different ways. I even read it as a metaphor for current Swedish society that is collapsing due to failed immigration policies, which even their prime minister has admitted to recently.

But you can also take it as this highly pessimistic, nihilist version of the ‘Passengers’ tale that depicts the many dangers of space travel in the most depressing and intense manner possible. It’s an extremely dark movie that can be overbearing in that depressing tone, but it works within the context of this story. There is even an interestingly complex depiction of the morally ambiguous captain character and how the populace on this spaceship is controlled and manipulated by various means.

Aniara really needed more characters to properly deal with all these ambitious themes and ideas. The protagonist was pretty well developed and Garbers was very effective in her excellent performance, but she alone could not save the movie from weak characterization and also a meandering pace.

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The movie is so extremely slow in its pace and at times genuinely padding that it is somewhat of a chore to sit through. I am a big sci-fi junkie, so obviously I endured, but I can see why many others found it tedious as it really is sluggishly paced. The VFX are excellent and how the ship was depicted was superb as we got to see so many different activities and facets of it. The score is also moody and evocative. I just wish that it had a more ambitious execution and a more dramatic presentation.