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Sitges 2024: Fleur Fortune’s Thought-Provoking Film ‘The Assessment’
by Alex Billington
October 14, 2024
There are an endless number of films about parenting (another good one this year – Nightbitch). There are always more stories to tell, and more ways to tell these stories. But few films about parenting are ever this intelligent, this thought-provoking, this compelling in their depiction of humanity’s choices with parenting. The Assessment is a new science fiction film directed by French filmmaker Fleur Fortune, making her feature debut in what is irrefutably one of the most impressive feature debuts of 2024. Set in the near future when parenthood is strictly controlled, it’s about a couple who wants to have a baby so they’re put through a seven day “assessment” of their viability as parents. This film is so earnest and meaningful, so fascinating and entrancing. I cannot stop thinking about it. So many thoughts, so much to discuss. Layers upon layers, so much to analyze, with extraordinary filmmaking bringing it all to life… I’m in awe. This will be on my Top 10 of the year – it’s one of these amazing indie creations that instantly earns a spot on your list of favorites.
The Assessment is directed by up-and-coming filmmaker Fleur Fortune (she has also directed tons of music videos before) with a screenplay written by John Donnelly and Mrs. & Mr. Thomas. It premiered at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival and appeared at the Sitges Film Festival as a last-minute surprise screening at the very end of the fest. Absolutely worth it. So happy they decided to screen this – it deserves to be seen by audiences worldwide. Profound sci-fi filmmaking at its best. The Assessment takes place in a climate change ravaged future, where the atmosphere is unstable and most live underground or in other safe haven places. Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel star as Mia and Aaryan, a couple living in a remote home doing their own high-level research for work. They’re happy and stable and want to have a baby, which will be grown in ex-utero by the government, but this must be approved. Alicia Vikander stars as Virginia, their assessor, who suddenly appears at their door for seven days of intense scrutiny and assessment. After an opening day of questions, they wake up the next day to discover Virginia acting like a rebellious toddler, putting them through psychological hell as a test of their ability to be parents. And this is just the start of her assessment.
This is a fascinating, captivating film for nearly a thousand different reasons. This is what intellectual sci-fi is all about when it’s handled with this much care & concern. The main question isn’t just “what would you do to become parents?” There are so many more intriguing questions it brings up: Why do you even want to be parents? What makes you worthy? What makes you think you’d be a good parent? Why are you worthy of being parents and others are not? Then there’s all of the sci-fi sides of it that are so subtly worked into the script without being overt and obvious. Why is this world the way it is? Is this world better than one where people have freedom to have as many kids as they want? Why is it or why not? Why does this assessment even matter? What are the choices humanity made that led us to this kind of future? Will choosing better people to have parents make the world better and/or prevent us from heading towards this future? It even gets philosophical wondering: What is the more important for humanity – technological research or having kids? Every day since watching this film, I’ve been thinking about more and more questions it brings up and how it tries to answer them. Or at least provoke us to consider the implications of each question & answer…
The best cinema comparison to make is that it reminds me of the brillaint sci-fi Ex Machina, and how that film also makes you think about so many different questions & answers about technology (and A.I.) and humanity. It’s on the same brilliant level as that film. It cannot be a coincidence that both Ex Machina and The Assessment star the exceptionally talented actress Alicia Vikander, delivering yet another extraordinary performance in this. She’s also matched by Elizabeth Olsen, who has the most complex performance in the film, with (as I’ve said before) layers upon layers of emotions and experiences. Olsen, Vikander, and Himesh Patel are all mesmerizing in this, each one distinct in how they handle the situations they’re put in and the questions they’re asked. These three strong performances are the backbone of the film, driving the narrative and also keeping it nuanced and intellectual. But they’re only one part of the bigger picture, as the film is ingenious because of how everything comes together as a film about more than just one idea or one thought. Even if some of the bigger sci-fi concepts (even the climate change setting) are presented in lo-fi ways or just in the background, they still play a part in making this sci-fi movie have such a profound effect on viewers.
I woke up the next morning after watching The Assessment and was awash with feelings & thoughts related to what I had experienced. This can only happen when a film is seriously clever and complex, crafted by a real artist who understands the great power of science fiction storytelling. Even if I don’t understand every single moment of it, I’m excited to dig in & attempt to make sense of it, attempt to understand what Fortune is trying to say, what she wants us to take away from this. From these human beings. From Mia and Aaryan. But also from Virginia. “What did she mean there? What was this all about? Is this what she means?” The best cinema out there can then let us take all these thoughts and integrate them back into our own lives. The world building, the minimalistic sci-fi, the intriguing ideas, the vividly unique score by Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, all of it is so breathtaking and fascinating. I’m so glad there’s still excellent innovative indie sci-fi being made out there. So glad there are new films that can still challenge what we think and what we know and make us wonder what we’re missing, what we’re not seeing, what we’re not considering. The Assessment is as much about assessing Mia and Aaryan as it is about assessing ourselves and our choices as humanity.
Alex’s Sitges 2024 Rating: 9.8 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing
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