The ruling royal family of the Mothership is toppled in a coup led by the King’s senior general Balisarius, whose first action as the new ruler is to silence any oppositional rumors. The movie begins with a huge military vessel, but it soon shifts focus to Kora, the main character, a former warrior who is now a farmer on a far-off moon who ploughs fields with horses. It appears as though the people in Kora’s hamlet are a farming cult trapped in a time warp because everyone is dressed in gloomy outfits that seem to belong in a time capsule from the 1800s to the 1940s. Their existence is an unexpected and startling contrast to that of medieval European peasants, as they are part of a cosmos of sentient robots and ominous spaceships. Kora’s dwelling quarters have an interesting automatic sensor sliding door, but within are lanterns for lighting. It’s evident that the cult has goals beyond simply disliking contemporary technology.
