Neuchâtel 2024 Review: ENNENNUM Is Science Fiction At Its Finest

On Saturday the 13th of July, the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival had its closing ceremony, complete with the handing out of its awards. As a part of the Critic's Jury this year, we handed our award for best feature film to Shalini Ushadevi's science fiction film Ennennum. It was a unanimous decision: everyone in the jury had it on the top of their lists (which made the jury deliberation very short indeed).
There are several reasons why we loved it. In a festival selection filled with often depressingly serious films, this one managed to stand out by making its statements clearly, in a fairly brief running time, without resorting to heavy-handed tactics. It shows that with a lean-and-mean script, dedicated actors and great use of your locations, you can swing wide with your ideas and still make them land.

In Ennennum we follow Ouso and Devi, a fairly rich couple who live in a strictly governed, scientifically advanced India. Ouso's recently deceased brother David was a beloved politician, and his death happened while the nation is at an historical crossroads. Because due to a new invention, you can basically be made immortal by having a chip placed near your brain. Provided you can afford it, your personality can then be downloaded and safeguarded in case of death or danger.
Shaken by their recent loss, Ouso and Devi are considering to use the procedure for themselves, but have worries. What does immortality mean for your relationship with each other? Did you sign up for eternity when you got married? Do social safeguards between people even work when immortal? Staying together for several years is fine, but time changes everyone... As Ouso and Devi tentatively start with a three day try-out of the chips, several things happen which cause them to doubt each other, and themselves.

Ennennum, which in the Malayalam language means "Now and Forever", is the purest form of science fiction as defined in literature. The term was coined to describe tales about the introduction of a new technology, specifically stories which show what the effects of inventions would be on society and the humans living in it. Here, the effect of the immortality device is shown on two likeable individuals. Ouso and Devi, terrifically played by Anoop Mohandas and Santhy Balachandran, take shortcuts and dabble in some foul-play while exploring the limits in which it is possible to control your immortal partner. Yet both of them remain sympathetic and believable as characters. This film is about feelings, emotions, yet it never tips into melodrama. The doubts raised here feel real, the concerns justified.

The technical exposition is supposed to be the boring part in films like these, but writer-director Shalini Ushadevi cleverly has all the tech-talk done by a nervous head-bobbing salesman, played by Ajithlal Sivalal. He steals scenes he's in by occasionally dropping the most heinous truth bombs about relationships, often at a bad time. And you don't get the impression he's sarcastic, which somehow makes it worse.

This film plays like a very good episode of the first seasons of Black Mirror, and I mean that as a strong recommendation. Ennennum is intelligently crafted, impressively executed, intimately focussed on its intent and doesn't underestimate its audience. It features one of the tightest scripts I've seen in some time, with great dialogues and an interesting tale to tell. As an old science fiction fan I was touched, and I felt I had learned something new. It beat my initial expectations of it and it's hard to leave a cinema more satisfied than that.