Posted on Sep 30, 2022
In a bio-engineered dystopia, 'Vesper' finds seeds of hope
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https://www.npr.org/2022/09/30/ [login to see] /vesper-sci-fi-dystopia-raffiella-chapman
Hollywood apocalypses come in all shapes and sizes – zombified, post-nuclear, plague-ridden – so it says something that the European eco-fable Vesper can weave together strands from quite a few disparate sci-fi films and come up with something that feels eerily fresh.
Lithuanian filmmaker Kristina Buozyte and her French co-director Bruno Samper begin their story in a misty bog so bleak and lifeless it almost seems to have been filmed in black-and-white. A volleyball-like orb floats into view with a face crudely painted on, followed after a moment by 13-yr-old Vesper (Raffiella Chapman), sloshing through the muck, scavenging for food, or for something useful for the bio-hacking she's taught herself to do in a makeshift lab.
Hollywood apocalypses come in all shapes and sizes – zombified, post-nuclear, plague-ridden – so it says something that the European eco-fable Vesper can weave together strands from quite a few disparate sci-fi films and come up with something that feels eerily fresh.
Lithuanian filmmaker Kristina Buozyte and her French co-director Bruno Samper begin their story in a misty bog so bleak and lifeless it almost seems to have been filmed in black-and-white. A volleyball-like orb floats into view with a face crudely painted on, followed after a moment by 13-yr-old Vesper (Raffiella Chapman), sloshing through the muck, scavenging for food, or for something useful for the bio-hacking she's taught herself to do in a makeshift lab.
In a bio-engineered dystopia, 'Vesper' finds seeds of hope
Posted from npr.org
Sci-Fi
Hope
Movies
Posted >1 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."The filmmakers give their eco-disaster the look of Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men, the bleak atmospherics of The Road, and a heroine who seems entirely capable of holding her own in The Hunger Games. And for what must have been a fraction of the cost of those films, they manage some seriously effective world-building through practical and computer effects: A glider crash that maroons the Citadel dweller; trees that breathe; pink squealing worms that snap at anything that comes too close.
And in this hostile environment, Vesper remains an ever-curious and resourceful adolescent, finding beauty where she can — in a turquoise caterpillar, or in the plants she's bio-hacked: luminescent, jellyfish-like, glowing, pulsing, and reaching out when she passes.
All made entirely persuasive for a story with roots in both young-adult fiction, and real-world concerns, from tensions between haves and have-nots to bio-engineering for profit — man-made disasters not far removed from where we are today.
Vesper paints a dark future with flair enough to give audiences hope, both for a world gone to seed, and for indie filmmaking."
..."The filmmakers give their eco-disaster the look of Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men, the bleak atmospherics of The Road, and a heroine who seems entirely capable of holding her own in The Hunger Games. And for what must have been a fraction of the cost of those films, they manage some seriously effective world-building through practical and computer effects: A glider crash that maroons the Citadel dweller; trees that breathe; pink squealing worms that snap at anything that comes too close.
And in this hostile environment, Vesper remains an ever-curious and resourceful adolescent, finding beauty where she can — in a turquoise caterpillar, or in the plants she's bio-hacked: luminescent, jellyfish-like, glowing, pulsing, and reaching out when she passes.
All made entirely persuasive for a story with roots in both young-adult fiction, and real-world concerns, from tensions between haves and have-nots to bio-engineering for profit — man-made disasters not far removed from where we are today.
Vesper paints a dark future with flair enough to give audiences hope, both for a world gone to seed, and for indie filmmaking."
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