Some science fiction films go big: collapsing cities, roaring tsunamis, and humanity clinging to survival through sheer spectacle. Eternal (For Evigt) does the opposite. Writer-director Ulaa Salim’s intimate drama quietly asks what happens when saving the world comes at the cost of a life you might have lived. It’s less concerned with planetary annihilation than with the quieter devastations of love, regret, and missed chances. The result is a thoughtful, if occasionally ponderous, story that favours human connection over cosmic chaos.
It starts with a cataclysm. A deep-sea fissure appears near Iceland, triggering climate instability and threatening Earth’s electromagnetic field. Scientists warn of extinction within decades, but the focus isn’t on leaders or their grand gestures. Instead, we meet Elias (Viktor Hjelmsø), a driven Danish student desperate to join the effort to study and contain the fracture. Then he meets Anita (Anna Søgaard Frandsen), a free-spirited singer who challenges his tunnel vision. Their courtship is tender and believable, full of whispered dreams and clashing ambitions. She wants to seize the moment. He wants to save the future. When Anita falls pregnant, their opposing worldviews come to a head. Elias accepts a scholarship to M.I.T., believing he can’t be distracted from his mission. Anita, unwilling to wait for a future that may never come, chooses to let him go.
This heart-wrenching split lingers as the film leaps forward 15 years. Now played by Simon Sears, Elias is a respected scientist piloting submersibles for the Northern Partnership for Fracture Activities. His mission: to seal the fissure once and for all. During a rare night of celebration, he crosses paths with Anita again, who is now a successful performer and mother (portrayed with quiet grace by Nanna Øland Fabricius, a.k.a. Oh Land). Their reunion is charged with nostalgia and yearning. Meanwhile, on his deep-sea missions, Elias begins experiencing visions of an alternate life with Anita. Whether these are hallucinations or something more metaphysical, Salim leaves open to interpretation.
“His mission: to seal the fissure once and for all. During a rare night of celebration, he crosses paths with Anita again…”
Throughout Eternal (For Evigt), Jacob Møller’s cinematography moves agilely between moody nightclub interiors, sleek submersibles bathed in eerie red light, and breathtaking daylight vistas. Valgeir Sigurðsson’s haunting score complements the visuals beautifully, especially during the nightclub sequence where Fabricius performs “Deep Sleep.” The music also encapsulates the broader sense of longing that is core tenet of the story.
Yet for all its beauty, this sci-fi drama occasionally slips. The science behind its doomsday scenario is woolly, and valuable pace gets lost when the film revisits emotional beats already well established. The underwater sequences, though visually atmospheric, lack tension or the scale you might expect from a story with global stakes, which is frustrating.
Still, it’s the beating emotional heart that carries Eternal (For Evigt). The chemistry between the two pairs of actors playing Elias and Anita at different ages is flawless, and the reflections on time, sacrifice, and unfulfilled dreams are powerfully memorable. This is less about saving the world than about understanding what, and who, makes life worth saving. It’s slow, sometimes too much so, but its sincerity and emotional depth are hard to dismiss.
"…its sincerity and emotional depth are hard to dismiss."
