Music videos can be excellent training grounds for young directors like Fleur Fortune. Whose movie debut, “The Assessment,” a sci-fi thriller starring Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Olsen that premiered at this past year’s Toronto International Film Festival, will be released by Amazon Prime later this year. Such greats as Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, and, most prominently, David Fincher all cut their teeth early on directing what are essentially short films for various music artists like Beastie Boys, Madonna, and Foo Fighters. Infusing the genre with a style and artistry would eventually inform their later work as feature film directors. Fortune, who has directed music videos for Drake, Lykke Li, and Travis Scott, can now count herself as one among the many who have made this jump. One hopes it’s the start of a long, promising career for the French filmmaker.
“The Assessment” stars Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Olsen, Himesh Patel, Minnie Driver, Indira Varma, Nicholas Pinnock, Charlotte Ritchie, and Leah Harvey. Directed by Fortune, writers are John Donnelly, Nell Garfath Cox, and Dave Thomas. Producers include Stephen Woolley, Elizabeth Karlsen, Shivani Rawat, Julie Goldstein, Jonas Katzenstein, Maximilian Leo, and Grant S. Johnson. Executive producers are Tom Brady, Connor Flanagan, Allen Gilmer, and William Bruce Johnson.
“The Assessment” takes place in a near future ruined by climate change, where a youth must pass a series of tests in order to have a child. After various challenging scenarios, an assessor decides if they are fit to become parents.
Here’s the official synopsis:
In the near future, where parenthood is strictly controlled, a couple’s seven-day assessment for the right to have a child unravels into a psychological nightmare, forcing them to question the very foundations of their society and what it truly means to be human.
Magnolia Pictures will release “The Assessment” in theaters on March 1. Watch the first trailer below.
