Movie of the Week: “Orbiter 9”
What would you do if you discovered that your whole life is a lie, that the parents you believe dead are part of the farce, and that nothing good awaits you in the future? This is the plot of the movie “Orbiter 9,” an interesting Hispano-Colombian science fiction, a product quite different from Hollywood standard.
Helena (Clara Lago) is a young woman of twenty years who lives in seclusion in a spacecraft that makes a long trip toward a terrestrial colony in a remote star system. She started the trip with her parents as a baby, and they had to sacrifice themselves for her survival because of an oxygen-generating problem.
The young woman fulfills her solitary daily routine working on the ship, exercising and watching romantic movies, which for her are a total fiction, since the only people she have met were her parents.Because of this, she is in great expectation with the visit of Álex (Álex González), a young engineer who will do the necessary maintenance so that she can follow the trip.
The visit provokes unexpected reactions in Helena. At a young age, the contact with the first human being different from her parents, and a latent romanticism lead the young woman to take the initiative to make love to him, despite guy’s reluctance. The other day he leaves the ship, and she continues what she believes to be a journey of two more decades.
However, when Alex leaves the ship, the spectator is informed of the truth. What was thought to be a spaceship is a huge underground facility somewhere in Colombia. All that is a simulation of a space travel, and Helena is only one of ten people who are studied without being aware that it is all a farce.
But while Helen remains in the innocence of ignorance, Alex increasingly feels a guilty conscience. In addition to affective involvement, he questions the ethical aspects of the experiment, where ten people are subjected to life imprisonment without the least prospect of freedom.
After think a lot, he decides to act, and invades the site of the experiment to remove Helena from there. The girl does not believe what he says, until he convinces her to leave the facility, and discovers that instead of outer space, she is on real Earth.
Obviously, the adjustment is not easy, even if she is living a long-held love relationship, and discovering a flood of things she had never dreamed of. Some of these discoveries, however, lead her to question everything, including Alex himself.
Although the synopsis suggests that this is a trivial science fiction, like so many others in Hollywood, “Orbiter 9” shows that, with intelligence and creativity, it is possible to make a quality movie with few resources.The budget for this movie was four million euros, which in Hollywood would just be the pay of any famous actor. Without major appeals for special effects, but taking advantage of some interesting locations, it is not difficult to believe the story shown on the screen.The film was written and directed by the Spanish Hatem Khraiche, who had already awakened the attention with “The Secret Room” (“La Cara Oculta”) in 2011.
“Orbiter 9” raises some interesting points for discussion, such as the use of humans in experiments without their awareness or permission. And if the reader thinks that this is fantasy, what about thinking about the dozens of economic plans and systems of governments that we have had in Brazil in the last decades? Could it be that the fact of being millions makes the experiment less damaging?
It is not without reason that the experiment shown in the film is carried out in Colombia, with protection of the national army, but who gives the orders is a character who speaks English, and that always discuss questions about money.Anything new?
This is a film that I recommend, not only for the interesting story, but also for the discussions it can elicit.
Original Title: “Órbita 9”