Day: Jan. 1, Movie 1

2023 starts off with the first of the Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView which was a film I heard about from Robert Meyer Burnett’s films of the year from 2022. It was a sci-fi film called Vesper, a film that I had never heard about before. I went to Vudu and was able to rent it and I kicked off the Genre-ary with it this morning.

Directed by Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper, Vesper is a post-apocalyptic film where engineered viruses escaped into the world and wiped out a large portion of life. Enclosed cities, known as citadels, were where the well-off went to thrive while others struggled to survive in search of food.

Vesper (Raffiella Chapman) is a 13-year old who is taking care of her father Darius (Richard Brake) who is paralyzed and can only communicate with Vesper through a flying drone. Vesper’s uncle Jonas (Eddie Marsan) runs an orphanage where he would harvest blood from the children that he sells to the citadels. Jonas was not motivated by a family bond.

One day, Vesper discovered a young woman named Camellia (Rosy McEwen) who had crashed, along with her father, in one of the citadel’s ships. Vesper took Camellia back and helped heal her, but there is more to her than what we see.

The movie was well shot and required specific attention because there were some really creative and intriguing ideas being used in the movie. Some of the concepts really worked well and created the feeling of hope among the desperation that enveloped the world.

Speaking of the world, this film did a fantastic job of world building. Creating a futuristic society with rules and dangers can be a difficult thing that, at times, weighs down a film. It many times leads to an excess of exposition, but Vesper handled the introduction of the ideas extremely well and the film worked it in to the story smoothly. In fact, several of the details that the film brings up are never expanded upon and feels as if there is significant story yet to tell. It is a setting where I would welcome further exploration.

The visuals were done vey well, helping to build the feeling of a world that felt dirty, grimy, but it never feels hopeless. You believe that Vesper is going to overcome with her intelligence and heart.

A nice start to the Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView.