Ensouled

Future technology’s capacity to challenge grief, suffering and mourning are put under a microscope in Moe Najati’s thought-provoking, slick sci-fi Ensouled, a genuinely memorable, dynamic and realised short that keeps viewers on the edge.

Clara (Joanna Saul) carries with her a devastating burden that has come to define her life. To seek a path to redemption and a return to someone lost to her, she contacts the mysterious Eternia facility – who promise to reunite her with loved ones in an afterlife. There she meets Vince (Christian Miller), who claims to be there for similar reasons. But something about the procedure she is due to undergo feels off, and a shocking revelation turns her entire perception on life on its head.

Moe Najati has previously spoken of how discomfort around technology he has experienced in his own life inspired some of the themes in Ensouled, and despite the film’s plot not following his own experience – it is clear that this work is the manifestation of a director with a clear vision. The shadowy Eternia facility which houses most of the film’s action is a genuinely unnerving place, the type of organisation with little eye on presenting itself as welcoming. Where the outcome of the procedure is presented to Clara as something to be cherished, the process itself – and particularly the processingof Clara as an individual – is quietly horrifying. Perhaps the film’s most telling exchange is where Clara asks “Will I feel anything?”, only to be met with the effusive response from Rachelle Lauzon’s employee Millie of “It’ll only take a minute”…

The disconnect between tech companies obsessed with outcomes and efficiency, and the human and ethical costs and questions around whether their aims should be pursued at all, therefore flows through the film’s circuits. Nowhere is this made clearer than in the character of Vince, whose motivation for attending the facility are (unsurprisingly) not quite what they appear. The knitting of his own story and choices with those of Clara makes for a fantastic twist which remains well in line with the primary themes of the film. Perhaps most hauntingly is the ultimate meaninglessness with which Vince’s fateful decisions appear to be in the face of the power of mega corps – the credits sequence emphasises this in genuinely haunting fashion.

The texture of the film is cold to the touch – with the scenes set in Eternia exuding lifeless, robotic and manufactured energy that tell the truth about the ‘service’ they offer. Najati’s visual creation feels inspired by Niander Wallace’s headquarters in Blade Runner 2049 – the refuge of those who understand what life is but not what it means. The blaring of alarms and flashing red lights raises the stakes to horror-levels as the film comes to its shocking conclusion, comfortably in line with the disturbing tensions Najati has cultivated through first acts.

Ensouled is an impressive addition to the modern sci-fi landscape. Its scepticism of the ethos behind technology firms and the questionable services they offer is earned through the storytelling that Moe Najati puts into motion. Audiences will be left engaged with the questions it raises, and pondering the ethics within.