Gaia (2021)

Gaia is a South African genre film in the mode of ecological horror. Heavy on political and social commentary on the subject of environmental conservation, as well as social normality and responsibility in that context, the film veers from one idea and visual set piece to the next. Lengthy and somewhat overdone, it feels too ambitious throughout, like the writer and director have both thrown things at the wall, only to fail in stripping it down to the elements that really work.

Set in a huge national park known for mysterious disappearances, the story revolves around a ranger who is injured and then saved by father and son survivalists. As she is nursed back to health, Gabi begins to realise that her hosts, Barend and Stefan, have strange ideas about the state of the world around them and have retreated into rugged solitude in the forest. What at first seems like a choice to avoid the outside world soon descends into the understanding that Barend and his son know something of a life-force that exists in the forest to which they are both devoted and live in fear of.

With some interesting visual sequences and design elements, Jaco Bouwer’s film isn’t totally without merit, though it drags on longer than it needs to and can often feel stretched in making it’s point. The editing and depiction of the horror elements sometimes feel derivative of other films in the genre, executed in a way that at times frustrates the audience’s understanding and interpretation. Essentially, it feels like we’re being pulled in too many directions without creating a cohesive atmosphere. This is a shame because there are some interesting ideas and moments in the film, though without the time to breathe they are fleeting and few enough.

Sure to please fans of horror up to a point, Gaia seems more like a failed experiment in genre filmmaking than a triumph. The ambition at the heart of the story and it’s execution is to be admired, but doesn’t serve to produce a consistent whole that can be appreciated as more than the sum of it’s parts.

2.5/5