Adapted from Swedish Nobel laureate Harry Martinson’s epic poem, first published in 1956, Aniara sees a ship searching for home knocked off course, just as Odysseus was. However, unlike their fellow voyager, the souls aboard the titular spaceship, abandoning a ruined Earth for life on Mars, are diverted without chance of return towards a cold, unforgiving universe after the ship is damaged. With even the onboard artificial intelligence succumbing to despair as the years pass, Aniara is a mesmerising, sometimes chilling depiction of a society coming apart at the seams when all hope of ‘home’ is taken away.

Notes by Kevin Coyne.

Screening as part of the IFI’s Odysseys season throughout July.

Tickets for 70mm screenings of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey on sale now!