People scrape a living in the mud where most life has been replaced or hybridised with artificial genetically engineered organisms. Nothing edible grows but the seeds produced by the last bastions of technology and comfort: The Citadels.
When a Citadel flyer crashes and she rescues one of the occupants, Vesper hopes this will be their ticket up into the sky.
This does not come to pass.
CW: very mild body horror, some play with themes of slavery and untermensch/unpersonhood
This is about as un-Netflix as you can get. It's an oddly hopeful but melancholy piece of European sci-fi that makes me think of a live action Ghibli movie.
Vesper's father is completely bedridden and mute but he's present as a floating drone that speaks to her and is otherwise utterly powerless.
The world is strange dirty and organic but alien. Everything is tended and grown rather than made or built but the results are patchy and the wilds full of dangerous and strange things.
It's a great slice of worldbuilding with a little exposition here or there where you'd otherwise struggle.
Nothing big happens and it's sad and whistful. If you want spaceships and explosions you're mostly out of luck but it's lovely to see something like this made, 8/10 recommended.