Proxima

Alice Winocour explores the interior landscapes of female psychology in this emotionally resonant space drama starring Eva Green.

French writer-director Alice Winocour – whose screenwriting collaborations include the screenplay for Mustang – returns to an exploration of the interior landscapes of female psychology in a singularly impressive film about a woman astronaut, Sarah Loreau (Eva Green), balancing a demanding vocation with motherhood. When Sarah has the opportunity to join a space mission that will separate her for a year from her eight-year-old daughter, Stella (Zélie Boulant-Lemesle), competing tensions arise both within herself and in her increasingly complicated relationship with the emotionally astute yet understandably anxious Stella.

Winocour and her accomplished cinematographer, Georges Lechaptois, were able to set and shoot the film in locations such as the European Space Agency in Cologne, Star City near Moscow and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, lending the film a texture and authenticity that sets it apart. Taking their aesthetic cues from Andrei Tarkovsky and Taiwanese director Edward Yang, Winocour and Lechaptois visually straddle the intimate and the cosmic in an emotionally resonant film of arresting beauty, grit and tenderness that features an original score by Ryuichi Sakamoto. An international cast brings together American Matt Dillon, an often under-rated actor who impresses in the multi-layered role of a casual chauvinist who becomes an ally; Lars Eidinger (Personal Shopper) and Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann). French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who consulted in a technical capacity, makes an on-screen appearance.

Roberta Ciabarra; Curator, Film