Proxima

Director: Alice Winocour
Starring: Eva Green, Zelie Boulant, Matt Dillon, Aleksey Fateev, Lars Eidinger, Sandra Huller
Distributor: Madman Films 
Runtime: 107 mins. Reviewed in Jun 2020

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Rating notes: Coarse language and nudity

There may be a difficulty for prospective audiences with such an enigmatic title as Proxima. And there was a difficulty for other prospective audiences when they heard that it was a film about space. Many felt that they were misled, that it is not an action show that they were expecting but rather a domestic drama.

So, the film has to be seen and appreciated as a domestic drama. Yes, the setting is space exploration, but the preparations and training for those who want to go into space. The actual blast off of the rocket occurs only at the end of the film.

This is a story of international collaboration, part of the preparation for eventual travel to Mars, a space experiment where the astronauts will go into space for a year but experience all kinds of potential disorientation, shutting out of the outside atmosphere, learning how to live in the confined rocket, the discovery of how humans could cope with a long journey to Mars.

The central character, the next woman into space (Proxima) is Sarah, played by Eva Green. Sarah has dreamt of being an astronaut since she was a girl, has been accepted into the training program, has been accepted into this particular space venture. Much of the early part of the film shows the rigorous training, the exercise, various pressures, the need for exactness, precision in timing, the adaptation to living in space for a year, loss of gravity, looking at the world upside down, seclusion. There is a pressure on Sarah, expectations of a woman going into space, some unsympathetic attitudes from men, more demanding expectations from the authorities. This creates a great deal pressure, of course, for Sarah.

However, at the core of this story is Sarah’s relationship with her 10-year-old daughter, Stella. There is a strong loving bond, mother and daughter comfortable with each other. But there is also the preparation for Stella that she be separated from her mother for a year, and having to get used to it in the preceding months as her mother goes into intense training, quarantine. Sarah is separated from her husband, Thomas (German actor Lars Eidinger) who agrees that Stella should live with him during this extended period.

In many ways Stella adapts. Sarah is continually concerned. While Stella seems to accept the long separation, the lived reality places strains on her, moving from France to Germany, new school, difficulty with maths, difficulty making friends, with phone calls and Skype with her mother.

An interesting discussion would occur between men and women watching the film, discussing their different attitudes towards Sarah, her ambitions and career, her goals in life, the pressures of separation from her daughter, the appeal to the maternal instincts of the audience.

Eva Green combines both charm and intensity to her performance, a certain edge to her training, to her concern about her daughter – with, finally, a brash decision to take her daughter to see the rocket site as she had promised but had failed to fulfil. A symbolic episode to indicate how the problems might be resolved.

During the final credits, there is a range of impressive photos inserted, a perhaps unexpected number of female astronauts in recent decades, seen with their children.

For those not expecting space exploration and action, Proxima offers an emotional exploration, of mother-daughter love and challenge.

Peter Malone MSC is an Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.