The future in THE POD GENERATION looks a little like Spike Jonze’s HER (2014). Soft pastel tones and gentle electronic sounds abound. The clothes are understated and elegant, the surroundings are urban, and surveillance is omnipresent. Those who need air and nature spend a bit of time in the “nature pod.“ Those who can afford it also carry their child in an external egg-shaped pod that is a bit reminiscent of the older iMacs and is controlled by a tablet. Rachel (Emilia Clarke) put herself on the Womb Center waiting list without telling her husband Alvy (Chiwetal Eijofer) about it, who, as a botanist, is attached to the old-fashioned natural ways. When a spot opens up at the center, he is flabbergasted at first. But THE POD GENERATION purposefully does not escalate the conflict. When Alvy realizes how much Rachel wants a pod baby, he gives in, and he is ultimately the one who initially forms a connection to the egg-shaped artificial womb. He takes the egg to work, reads to it, puts it on his lap. In the sci fi world of director Sophie Barthes, a pod pregnancy doesn’t just seem realistic, it also has advantages: both parents can develop an equal relationship to the unborn, women’s lives aren’t determined by their fertility anymore. In some moments, some unease arises – the pod babies don’t dream, for example – but the presence of AI and nature replacement processes is as routine like smartphones or prenatal exams are today. THE POD GENERATION is a gently dystopian film that largely forgoes dramatization and suspense and, instead, takes a detailed look at an aspect of the possible future.

Hendrike Bake

Translation: Elinor Lewy