Orbiter 9 is a 2019 Spanish-language sci-fi film about a young woman on an isolated spaceship who discovers that the reality of her life isn’t as she believes.
Right away, I may have spoiled too much. The description for Hatem Khraiche‘s slow-paced thriller is almost an invitation to begin making speculations and surely, cinephiles weaned on this sort of thing might be able to pick up where Orbiter 9 is going fairly soon (something the filmmakers make no effort to hide in any of the marketing). It’s an intriguing setup and offers plenty to wrap your head around even if the delivery is a little too staid and can’t quite capitalize on or even right justify its twisty end.
We open with a chilling moment of confession as a young woman named Helena (Clara Lago) sits in murky greyness, staring at a pre-recorded message from her parents. She is on a spaceship – a vessel bound to an unstated distant colony –that hasn’t enough oxygen and so choices are made. It’s a smart start, and from there, we witness Helena making the rounds, exercising, tending to a garden and doing her best to make it through the journey. However, a systems failure sees her in need of immediate help and an engineer soon arrives. His name is Álex (Álex González) and it’s not long before there are sparks, and then soon, a shared motivation in another venture, one that I won’t spoil here (though, again, if you watch any trailer, it gives it away).
What succeed most in Khraiche’s film – he also wrote the screenplay – is its sense of place and isolation. This isn’t new of course, with many sci-fi space films taking to the point that life in the stars can be harsh, especially alone or with few companions. The recent Jennifer Lawrence / Chris Pratt film Passengers is a recent example. That Khraiche at least offers a solid twist on that theme is certainly cause enough to let this be a curiosity, the pay off genuinely worth the effort. It’s just too bad that getting there leads to a slew of equally challenging questions and an experience lacking much-needed momentum.
One of the larger problems for me is that Orbiter 9 lets the cat out of the bag far too early. At around the twenty-minute mark in fact. While what we see is certainly fodder for a strong story, having it play out as it does really strips the film of a much more powerful gut punch. This has the movie becoming something other than it seems set up for and pries the top off a whole can of worms that have no answers. I’m purposefully avoiding hinting at what and where this movie goes because I firmly believe that there is still much about the film many will enjoy, perhaps even embracing the early twist and finding it better than the setup. To each their own.
Still, aside from story thread, Oribter 9 is a somber crawl, fascinated by its own style and dark atmosphere, driven by slow dialogue and orchestral music that makes this an often dreary watch. However, Lago is great to watch, a sturdy, smart character that convinces all the way, her presence nearly enough to elevate this to a more positive recommendation. Entirely in Spanish, this Netflix original is probably not going to get the wider audience perhaps hoped for, but I can’t say it’s not worth at least giving it a try. I crave headscratchers and films that challenge, just as this intends, yet for me, this one just didn’t click like I’d hoped.