Vesper (2022)

The post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller Vesper is a Belgium-France-Lithuanian production directed by Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper and co-scripted by Brian Clark.

It tells the story of a young teenage girl named Vesper who is one of the few humans left on Earth after a mysterious event wipes out most of the population.

She lives in isolation with her physicist father in the English countryside while he works tirelessly to understand what happened.

One day, Vesper's quiet life is disrupted when armed men attack her home and kill her father. He soon learns that these men are part of a militant group that kills anyone with scientific knowledge in order to suppress information about the catastrophe.

Vesper escapes by the skin of her teeth and embarks on a harrowing journey to escape capture and safety.

Along the way, she encounters other desperate survivors, including a wise hermit and a kind grandmother who cares for orphaned children.

But there are also lawless gangs and dangerous individuals who now rule the ruins of civilisation. Vesper must draw on her inner strength and resilience to stay alive each day in this new dark age.

What I find most compelling about Vesper is how it explores the pragmatic and moral dilemmas of surviving in a collapsed society.

The film offers a bleak but thought-provoking view of human nature laid bare, as Vesper bravely clings to her humanity in the face of the rising tides of fear, chaos and violence that surround her.

Though harrowing at times, it is a beautifully crafted post-apocalyptic story with a spirit of empowerment at its core.

I highly recommend it to fans of the genre.