“Proxima” tells the story of Sarah, a woman trying to balance her work as an astronaut preparing for a year-long stint on the International Space Station with her family life as mother to her eight-year-old daughter Stella.
A rare find in the space film industry is a movie with a female protagonist with her own agenda of character growth and overcoming obstacles. Often times, female astronauts are used as a prop for another male protagonist’s narrative, a movie phenomenon that also reflects a similar reality in the space industry. “Proxima,” directed by Alice Winocour, engages with the complexities of navigating motherhood while maintaining credibility as a female in the space industry. Only 10 percent of astronauts are female and “Proxima” delivers a narrative with both nuance and heart amidst a struggle to fight misogyny in space careers.
Eva Green plays Sarah, a French astronaut who becomes a last-minute addition to a team of astronauts set to depart for Mars as the ‘Proxima’ crew. Sarah is also the only female on the team, where she is often greeted with condescending attitudes and a lack of faith in her abilities as an astronaut. She is simultaneously being pulled by the responsibilities of being the primary guardian for her daughter Stella (Zélie Boulant), who often serves as the reason for Sarah’s guilt as she often remains absent in Stella’s life due to astronaut training.
Green exemplifies the strength that many women have to display in all facets of their lives in order to maintain credibility. Not only does Sarah have to be a present mother, but she also has to prove to her teammates that her addition to the team is out of merit rather than out of affirmative action. Green plays the duality of the role seamlessly by characterizing the desperation that women feel in order to keep everything following a perfect plan even as the people within those plans fall apart or distant.
There is strength and then there is vulnerability, eventually culminating into a climactic decision that proves to the audience that there does not need to be a choice between parenthood and career, but that it is a constant push and pull of imperfect decisions. Sometimes it is not about the logistics of the plan but the way in which you are able to deliver the intent of your decisions to both loved ones and colleagues. It is through this message that Sarah is able to eventually gain the trust and respect of her male colleagues and deliver her love to her daughter without it being misconstrued as absence and neglect.
“Proxima” not only offers compelling transitions of character growth in Sarah’s journey, but the film indulges in exploring a behind the scenes look in the space industry by filming in a couple of real training facilities in the European Space Agency. The gravity of Sarah’s career struggles are experienced through the way in which she trains her body and mind to endure the extreme conditions of space – such scenes were almost necessary to accurately picture the strength that female astronauts need in both mind and body to receive the same acknowledgments as their male counterparts.
“Proxima” is an informative yet refreshing film due to its switch in gender narratives and its durable exploration into the untold tales of women in space. Women astronauts are not just space tourists, but they can be space engineers and space pioneers. Their stories should not be left in the shed but spread to inspire future generations of women to challenge the idea that female bodies are not meant to go to the extremes of space travel.
Available to stream on Amazon Prime Video Friday, November 6th
It is strange that the above review failed to point out that the astronaut Sarah is portrayed as too emotional and unreliable to be treated equally to her male counterparts, owing to the potentially disastrous and unnecessary action she takes at the end.