Vivarium: a Kafkaesque nightmare

Looking for a home, a definitive place to settle, is not an easy task; But in the case of Gemma (Imogen Poots) and Tom (Jesse Eisenberg), this goal will turn into a true Kafkaesque nightmare. With this premise, the a young couple looking for their home, starts Vivarium, a film by Lorcan Finnegan that immerses us in a labyrinth that goes from the absurd to the suffocating.

But Vivarium It is much more than the simple odyssey of finding a home. Vivarium It is a satire, a parody of our society, of those prefabricated lives and canned smiles to which advertisements invite us to aspire. At the same time, it involves an observation, an analysis of the homo sapiens in which they end up equating us to those animals, insects or even plants that have been placed in an artificial habitat for our personal enjoyment.

There will also be no shortage of surprises, tension or laughter. The protagonist duo works perfectly and will face a most surreal situation. Gemma and Tom go to a real estate agency with a strange agent who will lead them to “their home for life”, a semi-detached house in a residential area on the outskirts.

The young couple will try to escape from an artificial universe, a paradise that recreates the maximum human aspiration in an empty way. A whole dehumanized labyrinth of identical houses that parodies life in residential neighborhoods.

Vivarium: a bitter laugh

Despite being intended as a film, the truth is that Vivarium It is very susceptible to serialization. Its format, narration and even aesthetics make it remind us greatly of the British series BlackMirrorand it could perfectly pass for being another episode of said fiction.

The use of color, the dehumanized world and the satirical and, at the same time, cruel message, inevitably invite us to think about the series. In fact, more than one will love it in its first few minutes, it will become tedious towards the middle and, finally, it will hook you again in the final stretch. And it is that, Although we know we are watching a movie, we can’t help but think that it is part of a series and, in this sense, there would be some footage left over.

But Vivarium solves the problems that arise and, When it starts to wobble, it rises and wakes us from our slumber with an awkward joke. or the deafening screams of an unbearable child.

What is a vivarium? Well, simply, an artificial habitat created with the sole purpose of simulating the natural space in which the species confined there would develop. We, as human beings, seem to grow with the world at our feet, there is no species above us or parasite that threatens to take away our nest.

However, The film establishes an interesting parable with cuckoos, those birds that invade the nests of others and leave their little ones in the care of an “inferior” species. What would happen if, suddenly, a rival arose for humans, a similar species capable of invading their space? That is, in part, what we are faced with. Vivariuma look from a distance, from a magnifying glass and observation, towards our selfishness and our contemporary way of life.

Thus, a satire is drawn, which of course has ingredients of thrillerbut it invites us to think about our own society. It is not only a parody of the periphery, of the residential neighborhoods, but of marriage, of motherhood and, above all, of our species.

We as an object of study

What would happen if a more evolved – or more parasitic – species observed us? As we have been moving forward, Vivarium It takes us away from our nest, it puts before our eyes the absurdity of our daily lives to, finally, laugh and invite us to think about the treatment we give to other species.

The film does not adopt an anti-speciesist position, nor does it pretend to be a lesson in morality, it just observes us, analyzes us and shows us how ridiculous we can be. Science fiction takes over our world, a dehumanized world in which we live with canned smiles and a happiness that we share on social networks, but it is far from reality.

A great weight of the film falls on its actors who, although few, embody their roles with absolute genius.. Without going any further, Imogen Poots, the protagonist, has won the award for best actress at the Sitges Festival. And neither her interpretation nor that of her few companions will leave you indifferent in this fable so deeply rooted in cuckoos, the parasitic species that you will not be able to stop thinking about while watching it.

Cold and absolutely artificial colors decorate this satire of modern life, making it a film worthy of analysis. Vivarium It will make us rethink our time in the world, the absolutism of our species and how stupid some of our decisions are..

What if we lived in a kind of model, in a habitat created for our species? This is what residential neighborhoods seem to be like. In a fantastic and suffocating way, it immerses us in an overwhelming place from which there seems to be no way out and which, however, is shockingly common.

Definitely, Vivarium It is one of those films in which it is better not to reveal too much, but rather to let yourself be carried away by the situation and give free rein to possible interpretations.. An analysis of our species – but also of our contemporaneity – from an external point of view that will not be exempt from comedy and even terror. The suspense will go in crescendo to give rise to a kind of eternal return, to a bitter laugh that mocks our existence and our passage through the world and that will make more than one person rethink their existence.

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