What Happened to Monday (2017)

Directed by: Tommy Wirkola | 123 minutes | action, crime, drama | Actors: Noomi Rapace, Glenn Close, Willem Dafoe, Marwan Kenzari, Christian Rubeck, Pål Sverre Hagen, Tomiwa Edun, Cassie Clare, Cameron Jack, Clara Read, Kirsty Averton, Lucy Pearson, Nadiv Molcho

The year is 2043. Overpopulation causes worldwide famine and suffering. Humanity is turning to GM foods to feed the exploding numbers of humans. But this is also not without consequences: the GM food causes the birth of multiple births and genetic abnormalities. A law is therefore passed, The Child Allocation Act, which allows people to have only one child. The other children are frozen for when better times come. In this world, septuplets are born and, in secret, raised.

Director Tommy Wirkola (‘Dead Snow’, ‘Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters’) brings in ‘What Happened to Monday?’ a dystopian future to life where a septuplets, who are not allowed to exist, secretly try to lead a normal life. Karen Settman dies giving birth to identical septuplets (Noomi Rapace). Her father, Terrence Settman (Willem Dafoe), finds a way to hide the birth from the Child Allocation Bureau, the executive of the Child Allocation Act, and raise them alone. Because they are septuplets, he gives each of them a name of a weekday. Thirty years later, they live well together and are well matched. However, one day Monday doesn’t come home anymore. Afraid of being discovered by the Child Allocation Bureau, led by scientist Nicolette Cayman (Glenn Close) and assisted by sadistic Jerry (Pål Sverre Hagen), the remaining six investigate and unravel a mystery that will not see the light of day. can tolerate.

It seems as if the story of ‘What Happened to Monday’ took the idea of ​​China’s One-Child policy as a starting point and twisted it into a society where a repressive regime with a heavy hand forces people into obedience. The interesting thing about this is that you are constantly confronted with the question ‘Is it really that bad?’ The most cruel solutions are sold as ‘for the greater good’, but how far do you go in this and humanity loses its own humanity?

It wasn’t easy, according to Tommy Wirkola, to make seven versions of Noomi Rapace (Millennium series, ‘Prometheus’), all with their own personalities, while acting against herself. However, Noomi Rapace is convincing in all her roles and always completely surrenders to her characters. Here too, she carries the film, with her acting talent, on her shoulders and we as viewers can focus on the story instead of being disturbed by seven identical faces. Glenn Close also plays her role excellently as the blond and sterile-looking Nicolette Cayman, the stereotypical image of a tough scientist who is not afraid to subordinate her humanity to a mathematical formula. With her dialogues about the famines and the hard decisions that have to be made, she convinces the viewer of the seriousness of the situation and makes us doubt our own perspectives and what decisions we would make.

And of course the attention also goes to our own Dutch Marwan Kenzari (‘Wolf’, ‘Ben-Hur’), ​​in the role of Adrian Knowles, who received a Golden Calf for his role in ‘Wolf’ and in this film an important role. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have much room to show his talent.

‘What Happened to Monday’ contains a lot of action, a good dose of anger, violence, disappointment and above all hope. Hope for a happy ending, hope for the goodness in man and that, despite the grim future that stares it in the face, it still chooses the right path and thus keeps alive the last flame of the human heart. It is also a case where humanity has its own worst enemy and the associated choices to maintain itself. These ultimately reflect the nature of this while also realizing that humanity is made up of individuals who love and, despite the big bad future, fight for a dignified life. ‘What Happened to Monday’ will in any case start a nice discussion.