Lucile Hadžihalilović’s strong second feature is set in a closed-off world of medical horrors and unspoken social and sexual secrets: maybe the distant future, maybe another planet, maybe a dream, maybe just a metaphor, but one with its own logic that’s always one step ahead. It’s a quiet, deliberately paced film, but exquisitely shot, with nuanced performances and visual invention. Its post-human aspects are reminiscent of Under the Skin, its slowly teased mysteries recall Upstream Colour, and its bold surprises are pure mindscrambling sci-fi.
OK, so what the hell’s this picture about? We open in a small, beachside community. White stone houses, black sand, volcanic rock. Everyone’s speaking French, but it doesn’t look like France. (Filming took place on Lanzarote.) Nicolas (Max Brebant) is an observant boy who thinks he sees a dead body and a bright red starfish in the sea. He tells his mother (Julie-Marie Parmentier), who shrugs this off and calmly feeds him another bowl of grey worm sludge and a glass of ink. The mother, like all the women in this town, is pale and wears a simple dull, beige dress.
Other boys are content to dig around in the sand, but Nicolas likes to draw in a sketchbook. He sketches simple, mundane images.One night he witnesses some sort of group sex ritual on the sand, in which the women all writhe naked and rub … something … on themselves. Then he finds himself taken from the beach area of white buildings to one with tan buildings. And that’s where we find the hospital.
Spare, quiet and dingy, this nightmare factory is loaded with rusty tiles and peeled paint. Nicolas undergoes a series of medical experiments that deal with the horrors of puberty in new, innovative and disturbing ways. One of the hospital’s nurses (Roxane Duran), who looks severe and older in her uniform but is likely just a teenager, starts to grow fond of Nicholas, and soon they form a nearly wordless relationship.
Evolution’s mesmerising pace affords time to root for clues in the difficult but never frustrating narrative. Our kind nurse has red hair, as did the motherly figure Nicholas drew in his sketchpad. He also wore a red bathing suit, and that starfish he smashed was red too. Hadžihalilović, best known for her post-production work on her partner Gaspar Noé’s films, shrewdly avoids horror clichés. It’s a creepy movie, and maybe even a little gross, but it never goes for cheap shots. This movie is loaded with striking imagery, but none of it is meant to shock. Evolution is an inspiring and maybe even sweet story of a frightened young person finding comfort from an unexpected source. Even horror movies can evolve.
