Imagine a world with no remaining men: that’s what writer and director Bertrand Mandico of the cerebral French horror film After Blue (2021) did when writing this sensual, kaleidoscopic story. After Blue takes place after humanity’s destruction of the Earth. People were forced to move into outer space to find a new habitable planet. They discovered the planet After Blue, and soon all the men died because of the planet’s atmosphere.
Because the Earth was destroyed, the women on After Blue wanted to prevent the same thing from happening to their new home. They made new rules like no fossil fuels, no chemistry, and no electricity to avoid environmental collapse. A sign reading, “all is to be done, nothing redone,” sits at the perimeter of our protagonist’s village.
Roxy, played by Paula Luna, is our protagonist, but the village girls call her Toxic. One day, she’s hanging out with her friends on the beach when they find a head in the sand. It’s a woman buried with her head sticking straight out. She tells Roxy to dig her out and that she’ll grant her three wishes once she’s free. Roxy lets her free and learns her name is Kate Bush (Agata Buzek), and she’s a criminal that was left to die.
That’s when the village leaders come together and force Roxy and her mother, Zora (Elina Lowensonhn), to trek into the mountains to execute Kate Bush.
The details of the new planet are a key part of what makes this film intriguing. The colorful, muted lighting offers a grim luminescence to the atmosphere. The landscape is diverse, ranging from deserts to forests to grassy valleys. However, it’s clear that we’re still on After Blue in every scene. The plants, creatures, and caves in this world are peculiar. They’re bulbous, slimy, and dripping with goo. The setting is both sensual and utterly disgusting at the same time.
The new society built by the women of After Blue feels diverse and authentic. As Zora and Roxy travel through the wilderness on their search for Kate Bush, they meet different women along their journey who guide them towards their goal–or step in their way. The women carry weapons named after designer brands like Gucci and Chanel. One wealthy artist even owns an AI version of her male ex-lover from Earth programmed to do her bidding.
But the most compelling part of the film is Roxy’s (super queer) relationship with Kate Bush.
Kate’s character is impeccably well done. She’s a mythic figure on After Blue. She’s even referred to as “the messiah of After Blue.” She’s easily identifiable by her one hairy arm with long, pointed nails and the third eye that lives between her legs. She’s known for her ruthless killing and her supernatural powers. Over the course of the film, she and Roxy develop a unique connection, even though they meet briefly only three times over the course of the movie.
After Blue tackles intense topics like: what is truth? And: what is life versus death? Roxy and Zora’s journey to hunt down Kate Bush leads them down a treacherous path that confuses truth with lies and death with life. It mottles the audience’s sense of reality and leaves us with even more mystery than we started with.