SPOILER ALERT!
This review on the film, Aniara, contains spoilers. If you haven’t watched this movie yet (I watched it via the MAX app) I highly suggest you do so before reading further. In my opinion, you don’t want this experience to be spoiled for you, and trust me this film is quite the ride!
I was inspired to write this movie review because Aniara took me on a journey that I am still processing. I’m still digesting all the information. There were so many little juicy tidbits throughout the film; so much to dissect! This movie touched me in a way that I don’t think I’ve ever felt. Now, it’s not perfect by any means–there were definitely a few holes in the plot–I still have questions…some things didn’t make much sense, but despite all that this movie will probably haunt me for the rest of my life. It sparked so much in me and this is my attempt to make sense of it all. I am really interested to get your perspective as well, so please be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments.
By the way, I found Aniara via MAX–the poster drew me in. I was drawn like a moth to a flame. So glad I watched it! Oh and it is a Swedish film; I watched it with English subtitles.
The Set-Up
Passengers from Earth are lifted onto a vessel called the Aniara; they are planning to take a 3-week journey to Mars. Earth has become inhospitable. Natural disasters run rampant and humans have no choice but to leave. The camera pans to our main character (who we’ll call MR as she is the Aniara’s “Mimaroben”) and follows her journey throughout the film.
The Aniara is set up very much like a luxury cruise ship. It’s paradise and all you could ever want is there; 21 restaurants, shopping, entertainment–you name it. Guests are greeted with videos of a woman (who we later learn is known as ‘The Astronomer’) talking up the ship and all of its features. “You’ll want for nothing”, she says. It’s all very much set-up to be a relaxing vacation of some sort. There was a scene where a woman (who we later find out is called ‘Libidel’) who complains about a pressure suit not being ‘designer’ quality. I scoffed at all of this because these people just left such horrible circumstances on Earth to now be treated to an illusion of paradise? But more on that later…
One of the “entertainment” options is the “MIMA” which is a kind of virtual reality experience on Earth. It was designed to help the settlers on Mars ‘transport’ back to Earth as it once was. The MR turns to MIMA for comfort (or escape?) when she’s feeling panicked. According to MR, MIMA taps into your memories to give you the experience of being on a lush, verdant Earth, free of pollution (and humans?)–the experience is soothing. MR tries to get people interested in the experience but she only manages to engage a very small crowd.
At this point it’s apparent that MR and others have taken this trip back and forth between Earth and Mars, many times before. So this isn’t the first trip of its kind. Now, cue the space debris…
Houston, we have a problem
As Aniara travels through space, they encounter a field of debris and as a result have to deviate off course to avoid it. Many folks are strewn about the ship as it veers off course. On the bridge of the Aniara we find the Captain and Pilots. They are heading further and further away from the path towards Mars, and are unable to regain control. Their main power source has been compromised and as a result has to be ejected. A Pilot known as Isagel is asked by the Captain where they are headed, and she replies towards the “Lyra Constellation”–something to note for later in the film.
The Captain calls the passengers to the main audience hall for an important announcement. He tells everyone the truth, up to a point–he mentions the incident that occurred and then proceeds to assure them that once they pass another celestial body, they could use its gravitational pull to put the Aniara back on course towards Mars. But here’s the rub–they’re not sure exactly when that would occur–he says it won’t take more than two years. At that point all of the passengers are visibly upset, notably Libidel (who bought the non-designer pressure suit earlier) who goes into a full-blown breakdown. MR and another passenger usher her into the MIMA hall, to soothe her.
The crew offer snacks and lots of reassurances to calm the anxious passengers.
Meanwhile the Captain is meeting with his leadership team to discuss their resources. They have an Algae farm and it is decided to harvest algae ASAP, and ration food supplies.
Back in MR’s room, her roommate (who happens to be The Astronomer) reveals that there’s no way they will encounter a celestial body in their lifetime. At this MR has a panic attack and once again turns to the MIMA for comfort.
Let the good times roll!
The Crew is all about maintaining the morale of the passengers, keeping them entertained and engaged. The passengers are a bit more on edge and as a result, there is much more interest in the MIMA experience.
A passenger is having a panic attack and the crew calls the MR for support, to try and get him to the MIMA but he resists. He tells the translator that the Astronomer told him they would never be able to return, and accuses MR of knowing the truth as well. MR angrily responds that Mars is a cold, dead place and that they might as well make the best of being on the Aniara. Eventually they take the distressed passenger into the MIMA hall, where he is able to calm down.
MR is overworked and burnt out from being the only person able to manage the MIMA–she requests more people to be trained to help. The Captain grants this request as the MIMA has become a necessary distraction from their unfortunate reality.
MR then uses the opportunity to ask if what the Astronomer told her was true. He hesitantly confirms and reveals the agenda–once the passengers get used to the algae and their new lifestyle on the ship, he will tell them the truth. The Aniara, after all, is like their own little planet.
By the 3rd year the passengers seem to be acclimating to their new shared experience and new roles open up, including opportunities to work at the Algae plant or water purification plant–both must be kept clean as they are the only sources for food and water.
Oops, we did it again
Interestingly enough, food is rationed and the water is sketchy, but there’s plenty of alcohol to go around. I found this funny.
The Astronomer serves as a kind of oracle throughout the film. Many of the things she mentions come to pass. She shows MR a tiny bubble in a glass of what seems to be alcohol (the Astronomer has a drinking problem) to illustrate how vast space is, and how isolated they are from everything.
MIMA is more popular than ever and has become a staple, so much so that folks try to get in more time in the hall. At some point MR notices something off with MIMA–the entity (AI?) begins to speak to her–the words don’t make sense together but the tone is grim. As MR takes a solo trip into MIMA, she sees horrific visions of birds dying and the Earth burning–she immediately senses something is wrong.
She shuts down MIMA for a day but everyone is upset about it, to the point where the Captain has to get involved. MR urges him to consider letting MIMA rest–she (it?) is depressed–it has taken on too much of the sorrow from the crowds of people visiting day in and out. MIMA needs a break from soothing everyone–all she feels is everyone’s grief and their memories of a dying Earth. The Captain refuses the request since MIMA is vital to maintain morale (it is clear that he is also burnt out and doing his best to hang on). A mad crowd rushes into the MIMA hall and it’s too much for MIMA to handle. MR tries to stop the passengers from continuing to hurt her–use her, but it’s too late. MIMA self-destructs, her last words being:
“How grim it always is, one’s detonation”
The hall is filled with ash and anguish. The passengers are rabid and looking for someone to blame–it’s MR’s fault, says Libidel, who starts a rumor that MR sabotaged MIMA. The Captain has no choice but to arrest MR, but Isagel tries to reason with him with the unfortunate consequence of getting thrown in the brig herself.
The passengers mourn the loss of Earth and its replacement, MIMA.
How else to cope?
The Captain failed to deliver on his two year promise. With no MIMA, by Year 4 the passengers have found other ways to cope, in particular through the rise of “cults”. One group is seen praying to the black void of space, to “bring us light”. Another group is penitent–begging for forgiveness through self-inflicted suffering; possibly trying to atone for the ‘punishment’ of being trapped on the Aniara. This group seems to be led by a blind woman. The other cult we see is the ‘Libidellas’, led by Libidel.
We also see a rise in suicides and a decline in the overall appearance of the Aniara…it is far off course from the ‘paradise’ it once was. What else do you turn to for comfort? Spirituality to read between the lines and find the deeper meanings behind the mundane–maybe to find the answer that only lives in the unseen? Or do you numb? Or self destruct?
The prisoners in the brig are being assigned duties as part of their release. MR is put to be a sort of Science Teacher to the youth. She and Isagel have grown closer and have started a relationship. Isagel is put back on the bridge. They are given a big room to share, and this will become their living quarters for the rest of their time together.
A woman named Chebeba invites MR and Isagel to a ritual led by the Libidellas. Libidel and the group have forgiven MR and have decided she didn’t sabotage MIMA after all; MIMA killed herself from grief. This ritual turns out to be a strange orgy party, which is how this cult has chosen to pass the time. As a result of this “ritual”, Isagel gets pregnant.
The Probe
By Year 5 the Astronomer is hitting the bottle much harder, and Isagel falls deeper into a state of depression. She can’t imagine bringing new life into their new reality. MR’s way of coping is to try and cheer everyone up. She has a plan to try to revive some of MIMA’s images so as to serve as a kind of holographic view for the passengers–to give them some hope. The Captain doesn’t share her vision and denies the request. By the way, the Captain is still doing an amazing job of holding it together–he tries to maintain the illusion of an idyllic view for his passengers and crew–I’ll speak more about him later.
Isagel gives birth to a baby boy and momentarily forgets the existential dread building inside of her. We get glimpses of what she will do in the future.
An anomaly is discovered in space; something moving towards them but it will take over a year to reach them. The Captain unfortunately jumps the gun and announces it is their salvation, and will help take them home. They have parties and lots of celebrations.
A little hiccup with the plot–they don’t know what the object is but somehow they know it contains fuel. How they were able to determine it contained fuel to be able to turn them around was strange since we learn later that they have no idea what the object is, what it’s made of, or how to use its strange power source. It is clearly an alien object they have never encountered before. By the way I also noted the probe looked like a giant metallic penis–a phallus wandering aimlessly in the void of space.
The Astronomer begins to spread the rumor (mainly when drunk, which at this point is most of the time) that they cannot use the probe and are therefore back to square one. In her oracular ways she tells MR the Aniara is a sarcophagus–they were in a coffin in space. I immediately felt goosebumps when I heard this. The Captain cannot have her continue to spread this, and kills her in a fit of rage.
The passengers are getting restless and demand answers but there are none to give; the crew is still “analyzing” the probe.
The Tragedy
The only way to pass the time now is to get high. Aniara passes through a nebula; bright lights are seen for the first time in years and all the passengers are entranced. The nebula comes with its own disturbances and causes major turbulence within the Aniara. Many of the passengers that weren’t buckled in were lurched violently about as the ship passes through. And then back to the void we go.
MR survives and immediately goes to check on Isagel and the baby. Both are alright; Isagel stares deeply into the blackness of space and tells MR she hears the Astronomer (whose dead body was thrown out into space) calling out to her. This momentarily startles MR but she tries to soothe Isagel.
Many more passengers died from the accident. The Captain is visibly disturbed from all the death around him. He orders all the bloody sheets to be cleaned–wiping away the stains from another failure.
Isagel is quietly spiraling and MR tries to remain optimistic and cheer her up. I feel at this point this is one of the ways MR copes with the despair around her, to prevent her from panicking herself.
MR finally gets the chance to revive some of MIMA’s images of a lush Earth and holographically displays them outside of the Aniara for all to see. When she goes home to share the news with Isagel she finds that she’s unable to open the door. When she pushes her way in she finds Isagel’s body, dead from self strangulation, against the door. She runs to check for her son and finds him dead in the bathroom; drowned by Isagel.
“I’m living through my own funeral”
After this, a few more years pass and by Year 10 the Captain hosts a celebration to mark the 10th anniversary of Aniara’s voyage into deep space. He musters up the words to try and give props for their efforts; the Aniara and its passengers and crew being pioneers in space travel. He continues to try to maintain some optimism in the hopes that the remaining few will somehow be inspired, but the audience hall is practically empty and everyone remaining is a walking corpse. Even the music playing by the DJ is subdued.
At this celebration the Captain calls MR to the stage, to award her a medal for her idea about the beam screen of MIMA’s images. She does as she’s told; she’s wearing a dusty dress and everyone looks visibly ashen–a possible foreshadowing of what’s to come. MR notices the Captain’s right hand is poorly bandaged and bleeding, possibly from a botched suicide attempt.
After this farce of a celebration MR returns to her room, which is dirty and disheveled. Brown water drips from the faucet and then the camera pans to bags of rotting algae, stewing in brown water.
The constellation of Light
14 years later–Year 24 and the space sarcophagus is completely dark. In the old and dusty MIMA hall, a small group of people gather–no more than 10. A faint overhead light illuminates them as the blind woman we saw earlier in the film talks about the light she saw and felt back on Earth. She is describing the Sun–their God.
The camera pans to an old and withered MR sucking in air slowly through her mouth.
“Give us Light” the blind woman pleads quietly, over and over.
After over 5 million years the Aniara finally flies over a heavenly body–a lush and verdant planet which looks very similar to Earth, in the Lyra constellation. The Aniara finally passes through the light, filled with the dust of distant memories.
Takeaways
Where do I begin? I feel like there’s so much to unpack. As I watched the film a second time it was almost comical to see how clean and pristine everything was prior to the accident that took the routine voyage to its doom. Almost like watching them and thinking “if you only knew”. And so many clues and omens to what was to take place later on in the film.
One of the clear messages of this film was to not take what we have for granted. We still have our Earth and it still provides like a loving Mother, but what will happen if we stop taking care of her? If we stop listening to her pleas for help? Will she give up on us like MIMA did for the passengers of the Aniara?
Where is home? Is it Mars, or now the Aniara? The Captain made it clear the ship was their new home now; it had everything they needed after all. But even that substitute failed.
The society of this film gave up on Earth and were ready to start again on Mars, and then the audacity of humanity to think once again that the Sun revolved around them? In other words, that we can still have our luxuries and escapes, and still feel like we’re entitled to live in the same way on Mars or any other planet for that matter. This movie is an omen for us. It took the Aniara over 5 million years to reach the “light” and reach another Earth-like planet, but humans didn’t pass the “test” of time–they were not worthy of this new home. For what? To fuck it up like they did the first one?
The anomalous probe represented the possibility of other life; to serve as a reminder that we’re not the only ones in this Universe.
And just like we search for meaning in the void, possibly so are other species. The Astronomer made clear that the Universe owes us nothing, and the vastness of space was a cold reminder of what humanity lost out on with Earth. We traded in certainty and warmth for darkness and emptiness.
Mother vs Father
The Captain was actually my favorite character throughout this film. There was a part of me that felt he was a scoundrel in some way for lying to everyone on the Aniara, but upon further reflection I have great sympathy for him. He did the best he could with such a heavy charge. The mission failed and therefore he failed. He tried to make up for it as best he could. I probably would have lied too if I were in his shoes, to keep the peace.
There was a tension throughout the film between the father-figure Captain and the mother-figure MR. The Father tried to keep the peace and tend to his flock with purpose and discipline, even if he had to lie to accomplish that goal. And the Mother tried to remain positive and provide some sense of warmth, and comfort to everyone she came in contact with. This I feel is why the Captain and MR clashed throughout the film; there was a bit of a power struggle there which I think is relevant to us now. The insistence of the patriarchy to maintain some kind of order at all costs, while ignoring the warnings and messages of the matriarchy, until it’s too late. MR warned, MIMA warned, the Astronomer warned, and yet the Captain wanted to continue to plow through his plan and mission. Possibly if they worked together from the beginning the first accident would have never happened in the first place?
Moral of the story? The “new world” won’t ever be better than our current one. Let’s really make sure to take care of what we have while we have it.
I wonder how MR and the others survived so long. At Year 10 we saw the algae being contaminated–what did they survive on all those years? On faith? Did faith that one day they’d return to the light give them the willpower to keep going?
I give credit to the sound engineers–the music helped so much to produce the effects in the experience for me. It enhanced the film and its messages.
By the way, I read in another review of this film that the Aniara ended up being able to turn around when it got to the Lyra constellation, and over the course of 5 million years was able to return to Earth, which we see at the end of the film; a green and pristine planet once again. I loved this perspective–the ending is really up to interpretation but I definitely love this one.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this powerful and haunting film, and did any other movie have a similar effect on you? Let me know.
