Astraea

Astraea is a short film set in the near future, depicting human's relationship with aliens. Its writer Craige Middleburg also stars as the ‘Rookie’, alongside Peter Inskip and Zak Watson-Smith. Between the three characters, the audience witness one man’s initiation into the interdimensional division of a futuristic job. As part of it, he must convince an alien to use its abilities of drawing memories out of objects.

The film sets up its story well using just three characters - not only because of their naturalistic performances, but because they each offer contrasting perspectives. The cliche dynamic of the rookie (Craige Middleburg) and the Veteran (Peter Inskip) is immediately powerful in foregrounding the story. What may be seen as an over-used stereotype works well, as it is cleverly established through miniscule details in the mise-en-scene and their conversation, rather than dramatic or plain dialogue. For instance the Veteran ignores the Rookie's handshake and takes advantage of his superior knowledge, misleading him in the interaction with the alien (referred to as a mimic) to poke fun. The Rookie, as expected in the inexperience of his character, receives this belittling and obediently follows instructions. He endeavours to impress and perform well in his assessment job interview, providing the character with a strong, engaging incentive for the piece. The science-fiction element is drawn from the final character - an alien. There is an added exciting dynamic of an outsider, which also works in strengthening the united front of the Rookie and the Veteran against him. All of them possess starkly different characters, charging the film’s action and dialogue.

There is an intriguing exploration of status within the interaction. The alien is naturally something to be wary of, but in this circumstance it is simultaneously inferior. Seemingly kept captive, it is used for the benefit of humans in determining their suitability to a job. Not only this, but the job is implied to provide humans with a superior status to the aliens. This iniquity is partly shrouded by the fact the alien presents as human-like through ‘mimicking’, but with certain unnatural features and behaviours.

The choice to make the aliens visually present as humans is a clever decision that both saves the film from an insincere element, and provides some eeriness. It suggests a possibility that they are not always identifiable, instead able to pass through life and humanity undetected. Not only this, but it reveals their unnerving ability to take over the physicality of humans, adopting their appearances while remaining alien.

The clever writing and directing spares the film from feeling performative or elementary. It establishes its futuristic setting, science fiction genre and the nature of the aliens majoritively through showing rather than telling, demanding that the audience infer for themselves. Incongruently, the sequence presenting the alien’s power utilises warbled, shaky camera movements and sound effects. This may be an ironic call back to the outdated film effects seen in early cinema, an attempt at comedy, but it comes off as insincere and not complimentary of the storytelling talent made evident from the rest of the film.