THE COLONY. Starring: Nora Arnezeder and Sebastian Roche. Also, Iain Glen, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, and Sope Dirisu. Directed by Tim Fehlbaum. Rated MA15+. Restricted. (Strong themes and violence). 100 min.
This subtitled German-Swiss science fiction film is alternatively titled, Tides, and is not to be confused with a 2013 Canadian science fiction-action film of the same name. This film is set in the near future after global catastrophes have wiped out nearly all of human-kind on Earth. The fate of those remaining hangs in the balance. The film features a female medical astronaut, Blake (Nora Arnezeder), and the film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2021.
Those on Earth experienced a series of disasters – a global pandemic occurred in a deteriorating climate, and endless wars have added to their impact to make Earth inhabitable. Mass migration by the privileged took place to a far-away planet, called Kepler 209. After the passing of some time, missions were mounted by those who escaped to survey the state of Earth and the plight of those remaining. Something on Kepler has rendered the colonists infertile, and Earth has fertility.
Those remaining on Earth scavenge to survive, and they live in a watery world. Two expeditions from Kepler were mounted to return to Earth. The first one carried Blake’s father (Sebastian Roche), and it failed. On the second one, Blake emerged to find a wasteland of tidal waters and mud flats on Earth. Shortly after the ship that carried her lands, she is attacked and taken prisoner, and opposing groups among Earth’s survivors have already been established. Blake is pulled aggressively into the faction of those who are dominant, and she struggles to remain alive.
The images of a desolate earth are impressively projected in the film’s production design, and the film’s cinematography captures bleakness with darkness and force. Earth is wet, muddy and covered in perpetual mist. The wasteland of Earth, compared to Kepler 209, is decidedly dark, and dismal. The film is thought-provoking in raising questions about what kind of humankind will, or can, survive major global climate, war, and health disasters. It also asks, by implication, what social structures are necessary for humans to survive, who have trust in each other.
Sci-fi movies following disasters on Earth frequently show those leaving Earth, via outer space, looking forward to reproducing their kind on a planet where they can live with fresh hope and vision. Not so this film. Too much is different. On Kepler 209, the new inhabitants can’t reproduce (though we never learn exactly why). The humans who left Earth want to return from whence they came to re-colonise a planet, which they now think they should not have left behind.
The film’s plot is complex, and its narrative contains detailed subplots that intricately intersect as they unwind. After a global pandemic, the world has to be different, and the film targets the hazards of making wrong decisions about what social structures should be adopted. The film is a post-apocalyptic nightmare that raises social concerns amid considerable violence and inhumane action, which the film delivers in thriller-adventure mode. The film is directed well and the acting is impressive, especially by Nora Arnezeder, as Blake. We may not know exactly what kind of world should be put in place after global disasters, but this film addresses some of the things we need to think about to preserve hope and trust in whatever might exist in the future.
This is a melancholic movie that paints a distressing dystopia, but it is visually stylish and dramatic. The privileged have escaped to survive, but now want to live among those they chose to leave behind. There are lessons in that predicament, and this sci-fi film grimly canvasses them.
Rialto Distribution
In select cinemas, 30 September 2021