There have been more than a handful of films that depict survival in snow-covered environments. Someone has to fight against the elements in order to make it back to civilization. If they are able to make it at all. Hugo Keijzer’s The Occupant quickly becomes a survival thriller that fixates so heavily on the act of surviving (rather than the survivor herself) that it’s hard to even care about the outcome.
How We Got Here
Abby (Ella Balinska) is taking on a dangerous job to mine uranium in Northern Georgia, which borders Russia. Her sister, Beth, is dying from cancer, and this is her last chance to get enough money to get her the treatment that could potentially save her life. We’re barely with Abby before she’s off to Georgia and sitting at a microscope, realizing what she’s found isn’t uranium at all.
Once Abby discovers that the rock she found might be worth more than uranium, she gets a call from her father that has her rushing back home. Keijzer injects some flashbacks of Abby and Beth before her plane crashes into the tundra. All Abby is focused on is making it back in time before her sister is gone. Balinska grounds this film with her performance from beginning to end. I don’t think there is a frame she’s not in. And it’s her performance that gives this survival thriller the emotional grip it needs to keep the story moving forward.
Where’s The Sci-Fi?
As Abby gathers her supplies and works to find a route to safety, a man named John (voiced by Rob Delaney) reaches out over walkie-talkie looking for help. Everything about him screams caution. Yet, Abby believes that if she can make it to him, they can make it out of this situation together.
At a runtime of an hour and forty-ish minutes, an hour and twenty of those minutes are of Abby trudging through the snow, climbing the icy mountains, and tending to her wounds. And remember the rock she found at the beginning? I know, I forgot about it too. It’s not until the end that its purpose and how it works is revealed. It feels less like a reveal and more like the film went, “Oh right, we said this was sci-fi.”
As Hugo Keijzer’s debut feature film, The Occupant shows promise, though most of it was on Ella Balinska’s shoulders. There are no emotional ties to the stakes for Abby’s fight for survival. There is a story there, but much like Abby trudging through the snow, you have to work hard to connect with it.
