Europa Report

2013 seems to be awash with thought provoking science-fiction films. Not just sanitised superhero flicks but movies that contain sturdy, worthwhile themes. Europa Report can be counted as one of those. Directed by Ecuadorian Sebastian Cordero (Cronicas) this’n slipped under the net somewhat, unknown and unseen by almost every casual cineaste. It is easy to see why. Without a big name director or a star actor’s coattails (highest profile guy is Sharlto Copley of District 9 and Elysium fame) for the PR men to grab onto there seems to have been very little promotion for Europa Report (it relied mostly on viral and blogging publicity campaigns). It’s also very character-driven with no time wasted on superfluous action scenes – and without ‘action’, films rarely sell well.

Right, a synopsis: a crew made up of Americans, Europeans and Russians head to Europa (a moon of Jupiter) the one seemingly inhabitable body in our solar system. They are on a quest to discover whether there is any sentient life thriving in the vast frozen oceans there, but disaster strikes and Europa turns out to be a bit wilder than predicted. I say ‘wilder’ – it’s not like Avatar with rampaging predators – but instinctive life, creatively and interestingly presented by the filmmaker. Without any distracting monster VFX, suspense is sustained at a captivatingly high level right to the end – a feat based on the idea that fear of the nameless or unspecified is more mesmerising and enthralling than a visual threat. That age-old film-writing technique of keeping the unknown unknown is as powerful as it was in the 1940s when Jacques Tourneur made Cat People.

Cordero’s cinematographic approach to his space odyssey-ing sci-fi comes from an unusual angle. The unnerving concept behind found-footage is usually applied to low-budget horror (not that that technique is low budget anymore – just look at the Paranormal Activity franchise)  to instil an immediacy, and cleverly unhook the significance of the ending, i.e. the audience knows whether the characters survive or not because that’s the nature of anonymous ‘found-footage’. Interspersed with the private videos and footage are faux interviews with the ‘experts’ that worked on Mission Control and knew the astronauts who were lost on the exploration, taking on a documentarial role.

With a mixed chronology Europa Report can be considered a challenging watch, and it’s absolutely necessary to stick with the characters, and spend time mentally piecing together the events as they emerge. It sounds like a recipe for madness, for utter cinematic and narrative chaos but a focussed audience is rewarded with an extremely satisfying final third, in which everything unravels from a fragile bud into a sturdy, charismatic flower. Worth a go.