Aniara

Are two sci-fi films about people travelling for a long time on spaceships in the same film festival a coincidence?

Aniara is a Swedish film based on an epic poem from 1956 about a huge spaceship carrying people from a dying Earth to Mars but after an accident it goes way off course. While High Life has a small functional spaceship, Aniara is like a combination of hotel and shopping mall (like a cruise ship but much larger). The passengers are mostly white, middle-class families. The protagonist, calling herself MR, is a Mimarobe, a crew member in charge of a machine called the Mima that reads minds and replays favourite memories to the passengers to relieve anxiety.

Aniara (the film) is divided into titled chapters that chart the stages that the passengers and crew go through in response to the vastly extended voyage. Each stage is illustrated by a subplot or some scenes mostly involving MR and others such as her roommates or the captain. This dystopian progression takes precedence over plot or characters so we don't know them or feel any more attached to them than we do to Star Trek's redshirts. The glossy surroundings also distance us from their predicament. Though there is plenty to think about with the various stages and strategies that the crew and passengers use to cope with the situation, which is an analogy for the fate of our planet.

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Ian's rating 2.5/5

Border

Tina works in customs at a Swedish ferry terminal. She is a valuable member of the team because she has an amazing sense of smell. Tina is particularly ugly. One day she processes a passenger she finds fascinating and the attraction is mutual. This has a knock-on effect on Tina's relationships with both her boyfriend and her dad. Tina, who has been bullied all her life, blooms as a result of this encounter. Border is another film that should have been categorised in the NZIFF's Incredibly Strange section and I can't say much more about what happens without giving too much away.

Border is a film about the marginalised in society and different strategies for those people to deal with the rest of society. It is also brings some old Scandinavian ideas up to date, by incorporating them into a modern story.

After reading other reviews I see that some reviewers are shocked by seeing ugly people having sex on screen.

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Ian's rating 3.5/5

Sami Blood

What? Those wonderful Swedes are racist? Well when it comes to the Sami people, otherwise known as Laplanders, that live across the north of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the adjacent part of Russia, they suffered racism across all 4 countries.

Sami Blood is a film inspired by the director's grandmother's life story and expands on an earlier short film on the subject called Stoerre Vaerie (Northern Great Mountain). Bookended by modern segments about an old woman going to her sister's funeral, the bulk of the film is set in the 1930s and is about Ella-Marja a bright and stubborn teenage Sami girl who outgrows her one room school and decides to cross the divide between Sami life and Swedish life. While not illegal, her decision is considered wrong by both her family and almost every Swede she meets.

Ella-Marja's determination and the condescension and hostility she meets among the Swedes are the defining themes of the film. This could have been a depressing film but as none of the characters are completely good (even our heroine) and the scenes of her trying to fit in are played with gentle humour (as is the sex scene), it is on the balance an upbeat film, which should make you a little bit angry.

Ian's rating 3/5

She Monkeys

Incisive direction and unwavering performances by a non-professional cast lend startling force and psychological exactness to this raw, sexually charged drama of adolescent power play and small-town emotional austerity.

In otherwords She Monkeys is one of those Swedish movies that give Scandinavian movies a bad name. Not in the way they did in the 1970s, but in the way that appeals more to professional film critics rather than audiences.

A more accurate description is:

Immersed in the world of competitive equestrian vaulting, introverted striver Emma and cool, self-assured Cassandra find themselves drawn to each other, first as friends, then as rivals. Meanwhile, Emma’s eight-year-old sister tests out her own understanding of attraction and power as she attempts to seduce her alarmed teenage babysitter.

Because Emma is a silent, brooding, expressionless teenager she becomes boring to watch after a while. Luckily for us, she attracts the attention of both the more photogenic and marginally more outgoing Cassandra and a good looking young policeman. While Emma's silent mind games are interesting they are not riveting. For me the film was saved by Emma's sulky little sister and her attempts to seduce her teenage cousin/babysitter.

To summarise, some parts of the film were interesting, though overall presentation was dull.

Ian's rating 2/5 Anne's rating 2/5