This film was released on Friday 6th September 2019 and is no longer screening.

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Adapted from a 1956 poem by Swedish Nobel Laureate Harry Martinson, the film follows the progress of Aniara, one of several transport vessels ferrying the population of a now uninhabitable Earth to new life on Mars. The trip will take three weeks, and Aniara is designed as a giant shopping mall, with facilities catering for its passengers every whim. One such amenity is the Mima, an addictive virtual-reality experience that taps into the passengers’ memories of Earth as it was before it was scorched by global warming.

A collision with a piece of space debris knocks the craft off course, and fuel supplies are jettisoned – turning back towards Mars is impossible, and Aniara is forced to drift into deep space with little hope of rescue. As months become years, the microcosm of humanity on board begins to unravel.

(Notes by David O’Mahony.)

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