Emelie Jonsson in ANIARA, a Magnet release. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.
The first trailer for VICE Studios' upcoming sci-fi film Aniara is here, and the thing is a surreal and unsettling dystopian nightmare.Aniara, which the New York Times recently dubbed a "one-way ticket into the abyss," follows a spaceship full of passengers evacuating Earth for better lives on Mars. The ship runs into disaster not long after takeoff, draining it of fuel and sending it spinning helplessly off course into the depths of space. The only hope for the ship is to wait and pray it eventually drifts close enough to another planet or star that the crew can use the gravity to reorient the ship back on track. Unfortunately, there's no telling how long that might take.From the look of the trailer, this depressing fate sends some passengers to full-on existential crisis, others to prayer, and a few of them seem to just decide that the only option is to embrace some kind of wild, hedonistic life full of nudity and body paint, apparently. In its review last April, Variety praised Aniara as "both impressive in its scope and intimate in its portrait of human nature under long-term duress."Give the trailer a watch below and catch Aniara in theaters on May 17.