The Colony (Netflix) is a boutique sci-fi footage by Swiss director Tim Felbaum. Who entered the 71st Berlin Film Festival under the original title Tides. While Hell, Fehlbaum’s 2011 debut, is post-apocalyptic, The Colony is partially after Earth. Shortly, a researcher is sent back to our planet to look for encouraging signs of life.
“Climate change, pandemic” – oh, that doesn’t sound promising.
When Earth became uninhabited, the ruling elite fled to settle in Kepler 209. And with this introduction, we join the crew of Ulysses 2. As they land on Earth ravaged by violent storms and high tides. Two generations have passed since the Kepler settlers left, and their people were barren during that time. Their return mission to Earth hopes to find out if the planet is habitable and habitable. But that’s not an exact science.
Ulysses 1 is destroyed, and Ulysses 2 is immediately reduced to one crew member. Blake (Nora Arneseder), who a group of survivors quickly captures. In retrospect, we learn that Blake’s father (Sebastian Roche, Big Sky). Who was an astronaut on Ulysses 1 and some facts about the Kepler company. They see themselves as a whole, much legitimized and therefore only in their efforts as invaders.
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Blake’s captors have enemies of their own. This larger group is better equipped, operating from a sunken supertanker. And linked to Ulysses’ first mission to Gibson (Iain Glen). Their motives as carriers of a civilization of unclean children on Earth are noble and deeply suspicious.
As Blake witnesses her operation, she forms a relationship with Narvik (Sarah-Sophie Busnina). Whose daughter Gibson is kidnapped, and begins to reconsider her status. As a woman and a colonial explorer of the planet and society for better or worse. By doing well without people. -people who chose to leave all previous generations behind.
Iain Glen, or Sir Jorah Mormont from Game of Thrones, mostly plays Dr Alexander Isaacs. The geneticist in Resident Evil, whose clinical cover-up hides his evil intentions.
Science fiction isn’t easy when you’re on a budget.
But with The Colony, director Tim Fellbaum and cinematographer Marcus Forderer. That were able to define the scope of their premise with a combination of small details. Blake’s state-of-the-art fixtures – and large chunks of boiling grey water and pitch-black mud.
Earth has become one great estuary, and rising tides determine the fate of this group of young survivors; Precisely, Forderer drenched every frame of The Colony in the wet and sour darkness. It’s an effective way of challenging more significant problems in smaller spaces.
And that’s before we dive into the rusty cabins and creaky superstructure of the tanker that Gibson and his cohorts call home. Kepler’s life is presented as a sketch only, and there is no CG spaceship here. Instead, it’s an intergalactic themed story told on the ground level.
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The Colonies don’t give Nora Arneseder a path as clear-cut as Blake’s marred by water, mud, and scenarios that aim to transform her from a docile invader to a freedom fighter liberated in a matter of days. But in addition, he looks at Kepler’s moral compass from a different angle and seems to believe that humanity on Earth has enough vitality to withstand all kinds of storms. Glen and Roche’s backing twist is vital, even sharing a rough landing with Ulysses 2. The Colony meets boutique-scale sci-fi.
The Colony offers a variety of themes but reaches a physical scale for a sci-fi premise with gritty cinematography and test scripts.