The space film genre is so saturated with white (American) men that it’s refreshing to see a film like Proxima, with no trace of imperialism. This film is about the state of mind of a French female astronaut. Director Alice Winocour, who often focuses on troubled people − the hysteria case study in her first feature Augustine (2012), the bodyguard suffering from PTSD in Disorder (2015) − explores the mental workload of Sarah (Eva Green), chosen to participate in a space mission with men. She has to deal with rigorous and exhausting training, sexism at work and, above all, the notion of leaving her 8-year-old daughter behind for one year.
Proxima is a perfect mix of documentary-like depiction of an astronaut’s life (in a centrifuge, at a press conference) and melodrama, thus making the expanding gap between parent and child look as large as the distance from Earth to the Moon.
Trailer
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Film details
- Country of production
- France
- Year
- 2019
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2020
- Length
- 107"
- Medium/Format
- DCP
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