Lucile Hadžihalilović's Evolution (2015)

Very little is certain in Lucile Hadžihalilović's first feature film in ten years, although it's harrowing and mysterious, and certainly some of it bears a suggestion of the dreams of the main character Nicolas (Max Brebant). This film is set on a island (in reality Lanzarote) in a possibly post-apocalyptic era, possibly a dystopian female-dominated society, but there are only strange women in control of pre-adolescents here, no men at all. Nicolas's 'mother' gives him a regular nightly dose of an unknown substance for an unknown reason, and Nicolas escapes from his cell-llike room frequently to do such things as join the other 'inmates' in the burial of a huge lobster or watch a weird ritual of women writhing together naked on the rocks by the seashore.

Nicolas's 'mother' pays close attention to what he's drawing in his sketchbook, as do the nurses, because this seems to be set in a dilapidated hospital, and Nicolas's 'mother' disappear into the background and nurses occupy her space. There are injections to cure Nicolas of an unknown illness: could it be that rebellion is the illness, and the evolution the film's title refers to be the evolution of consciousness? Probably not as the boys in a tank of water witness the birth of a baby, and the viewer can't discover anything because most of the acting is poker-faced, most of the images dreamlike/and or disturbing because they are open to many interpretations. We see a Caesarian birth, operations on Nicolas's navel. Nicolas becomes more inquisitive and a nurse, Stella (Roxane Duran), swims with him and gives him a long underwater kiss. She then goes from the island with him in a rowing boat, leaves him and the film leaves us with the bright lights of a town on another island or mainland.