Once upon a time, after the bio-apocalypse, a gifted little girl – who dreamed of being a bio-technician – lived in a cabin in the woods with her bed-ridden father and her pet drone. Sure enough she had a wicked uncle, who ruled his penurious clan with a rod of…no…actually it’s a small knife plus a lot of presence.
One day she rescued a strange, magical princess from the Citadel from her crashed insect copter. Her life would never be the same…
Vesper is a Lithuania/France/Belgium/United Kingdom, filmed in Lithuania in 2022 with a British cast, including ingenue Raffiella Chapman in an outstanding performance as Vesper, Rosy McEwen as Camellia, and Eddie Marsan as softly-spoken villain Jonas. Directed by Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper in a fine style that reminds me of Tarkovsky.
The film has truly breath-taking visuals, with the woods seeming to be alive with strange, moving plant-creatures. Although, like the best fairy-tales, the horror is downplayed, we get glimpses of a very grimdark world where brutality is always near to the surface.
Without giving away spoilers, this film is quite spectacular in its storytelling. If you are after superheroes and explosions, then stay away. The development of the characters and the painful, yet beautiful bonding of Camellia and Vesper, in a surrogate mother-daughter relationship is superb to travel with.
Eddie Marsan knocks it out of the court with his portrayal of evil Jonas. If we look at the world from his point of view: he is a stern patriarchal figure trying to keep his extended family alive in harsh circumstances, so he is forced to take sometimes-questionable measures, for the good of the clan. As he explains it: “I’m not running a charity, even family must pay.”
The mysterious ruling class, locked away in their citadels, are an omnipresent force, usually depicted by their insubstantial, yet menacing, seed-like flying machines. We gradually get an insight into them through Camellia’s revelations. It’s not good.
The biotech future owes a lot to graphic novels and Avatar, as well as cyber- and steam-punk tropes, yet is is also unique in its design.
A gem of a movie.