Pass an exam to be able to have children

Control over bodies, especially women's bodies, has been a recurring theme in dystopian narratives depicting futuristic authoritarian regimes. The evaluation, an effective and stylized science fiction chamber piece, does not contain the fierce genre reading ofThe Handmaid's Tale, but the spirit of the novel Margaret Atwood permeates the description of this post-climate disaster universe: aseptic and safe but also tightly regulated, where couples who want to have children must pass a strict external evaluation.

The film is structured around the seven days of intense scrutiny exercised by the eccentric evaluator played by Alicia Vikander – in a surprising register closer to her imposing character in Irma Vep that in the android ofEx Machina– about the lead couple in their own home. The originality of the premise is undeniable, as is the benefit that newcomer Fleur Fortune extracts from her extraordinary cast and the limited elements at her disposal, such as sophisticated art direction and photography reminiscent of the cinema of Denis Villeneuve. But the film addresses so many themes (the dangers of authoritarianism, the consequences of a classist and unequal society) that it doesn't delve into what ultimately proves to be the most complex and uncomfortable: the conflicting codependency and tense power dynamics latent in every parent-child relationship.