Low-Flying Aircraft

More of an extrapolation than a straight adaptation, Swedish director Nordlund's film of JG Ballard's 1975 short story fleshes out and feminises a dystopian vision. In a near-future world headed for extinction, because most children are being born sightless mutants, a young professional couple hide out in a seaside hotel, in the desperate hope that the wife's seventh (illegal) pregnancy will produce a healthy baby. Nordlund's sympathetic but never slavish vision blends with Acácio de Almeida's moody, digitally enhanced photography to create a Ballardian world where composition, framing and distorted colours evoke psychological states as much as concrete reality. A world where phosphorescent vapour trails from the aviator-doctor's plane hint at a possible alternative future. Films of Ballard's Super-Cannes and Cocaine Nights are promised, but until then, this is a must for the author's fans.