Vesper (2022) Dir. Kristina Buožytė & Bruno Samper

I have to admit I came at Vesper having read nothing about it, and aside from seeing an interesting poster, I thought it was some kind of YA novel adaptation.

Well, the set-up has echoes of Hunger Games (kinda) but overall you’ll be in for a very different experience with Vesper.

We are introduced to a post eco disaster apocalypse where people struggle to survive in swampy marshes. At the same time, others live in luxury on floating citadels protecting themselves, hoarding resources and thinking of few others.

Raffiella Chapman plays Vesper, a young girl who searches for food with a robot controlled by her paralysed father. In this world seeds are pre-programmed for one season rendering them quickly useless and keeping the lower-class population constantly in need.

With a touch of Wall*E and a dash of Oblivion and Elysium already, Vesper has many familiar elements from other sci-fi films to create its world. One which doesn’t always get away from these influences.

The film’s aesthetic is one of its best attributes and includes a surprising amount of gross body horror. Definitely not in the YA arena. And as well as human external organs, the ground and trees also pulsate amongst their earthy grime. The medieval world mixed with elements of Blade Runner 2049 gives the film a unique and visually appealing look despite its low budget.

Vesper continues to experiment in order to “crack” the code of the seeds and her resourcefulness comes into play as she fixes rudimentary tech and attempts bio hacking – themes that lead it to have parallels with David Cronenberg’s recent Crimes of the Future.

The darkness continues as a child is made to kill an albino slave, blood is traded for food and we witness an orchestral swaying of plant “conception” in a world of primordial soup. It certainly earns its 15-rating!

Also, keeping the children in their place is Eddie Marsan’s Jonas. Marsan, who has made a career playing weridos in positions of power, is menacing as an authority figure and a survival leader who tries to maintain a certain status quo.

The film has plenty to say with a great central performance by Chapman who displays plenty of grit, integrity and determination. A strong score adds to the proceedings but the film hugely lags in the middle.

When Rosy McEwen as Camellia, a member of the Citadel, crash lands and is found by Vesper, I found this mish mash of plot elements bogged down with dull scenes of drama generously described as character building.

Its scattershot approach to its themes - power struggles, class systems, body modification, “saving the planet” – are varied but a greater focus on just a few of them may have got its message across better.

I did enjoy its fairy tale allusions – are the seeds magic beans? She’s taken down a path of food salvation like Hansel and Gretel, whilst the enchanted woods, magic mushrooms and a sleeping beauty passed out also allude to myths and legends.

To summarise Vesper, we get a great looking film, multi-layered and it throws up decent thematic choices but for some reason it never really clicked with me. Perhaps too bleak at times, for me the drama never quite matches the bold ideas it wants the viewer to get on board with. So Vesper seems to sow the seeds of something special but halfway through I felt I’d been sold some plain old “regular” beans rather than magic ones.

★★★

3/5

Michael Sales

Vesper is on digital platforms now