Meanwhile on Earth is created by Jérémy Clapin, who is making his feature film debut. The director and screenwriter in one is a talented animation filmmaker whose I Lost My Body has been recognized with numerous awards including a 2020 Oscar nomination and the Grand Prix Grand Prize of the International Critics’ Week at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Meanwhile on Earth is a picture in which the continuity of the plot and the execution of pre-planned solutions are placed unevenly on the line of events presented in the film. The creators put a very strong emphasis on the strong and extreme emotions that fill the characters, and above all by the main character – Elsa (Megan Northam). The girl cannot get over the loss of her brother – Franck (Yoan Germain Le mat), who was an astronaut lost during a space mission. 

Agonal grief, which is at times the only emotion representing Elsa is cranked up at every turn. The girl stays in her favorite places, where she spent many moments with her brother, and every element of her surroundings reminds her of her lost loved one. Evidently, she is unable to pick up after the events, about which she also knows little. She has lost contact with the man with whom she spent every free moment together – planning, dreaming, playing and just living. Her parents and younger brother, although they experienced the same loss their level of trauma is at a different level. They are not as struck by the statue of the astronaut, erected on a nearby traffic circle, which for Elsa is like a match thrown into a gasoline canister. The main character’s plans, which were most cheered by Franck, are turned upside down, and she herself, also in self-therapy, is hired as a caregiver in a retirement home. This plot, although it has a rather interesting application in the context of the whole film, was not developed in any depth to give it more attention. 

Elsa’s ambivalence and powerlessness written on her face is put to the test when she is “haunted” by an unidentified life form, whose portrayal by Clapin is almost perfect. Employing inserts from his strongest plot as a filmmaker, i.e. animated film, the director transparently, yet with just the right amount of mysticism, depicts the extraterrestrials. Elevating the theme of mourning to a central motif of the film, the filmmaker challenges his main character – presenting her with an alternative solution that is able to “bring back” her brother. Entangled in ethical dilemmas, Elsa is presented with an arch-difficult choice, in which, as a barter, she can sacrifice human lives for the recovery of her beloved Franck. 

Meanwhile on Earth is, at first glance, a template story about the struggle with emotions after the loss of a loved one, but underneath this expressive exterior, there are many more intriguing solutions. It is a film full of existential ponderings and dilemmas that are difficult to simply decipher. This deeper complexity is added by the way the filmmakers drive the narrative dynamics in the second half of the film. Betting on unpredictable and, above all, ambiguous choices, to which they add a “ticking bomb” effect, they create from the last part of the film a very good picture hooked on psychological thriller. 

Although it may seem obvious to categorize this film as indie sci-fi, the facts arising from the main character’s decisions and choices prompt one to assign Meanwhile on Earth a much more complex label. And, as in cases of very painful trauma, it is until the very end that both Elsa and the audience will not fully know what to think and feel as they go through the vague stages that Jérémy Clapin has prepared.   

Meanwhile on Earth (dir. Jérémy Clapin) is screened during the 18th edition of the Mastercard OFF CAMERA International Festival of Independent Cinema in Krakow as part of the Bests of Fests section, of which Interia is a partner. 

Screening list:  

• 04/05/2025 | 12:00 | Sala Duża | MOS Birthday Cinema MASTERCARD

Marcin Telega