Meanwhile On Earth aka Pendant Ce Temps Sur Terre (2025)

        It's time for a bit of quiet French science fiction as writer director Jérémy Clapin's first live action feature film gets a release from Blue Finch. His previous work has been in animation and there's a bit of that in here, too.

It's three years since 23 year old Elsa (Megan Northam) lost her brother Frank (Sébastien Pouderoux) on a space mission that disappeared. She spends her days working in a care home run by her mother and staring at the statue of Frank that has been erected on a nearby roundabout. 

But perhaps all is not lost. One night while outside Elsa is contacted by a voice claiming to be one of five alien beings who have her brother. He's safe but they will only release him if she will find human bodies for each of them to occupy. They allow her to speak to Frank to prove his existence and after that it's up to her to decide if she is willing to pay the aliens' price.

The opening act of MEANWHILE ON EARTH plays like a fairy tale of a girl whose brother has been kidnapped by goblins and she has to follow a path into the woods (and chop a tree down) to gain the clues needed to get him back. After that the film continues like the ultra low budget piece of quiet SF that it is. There are no action sequences or explosions here, although there is one gory bit with a chainsaw. 

Peppered throughout the 90 minute runtime are short pieces of animation to illustrate Elsa's dreams of what meeting her brother again might be like and the whole endeavour is charming enough that if you fancy a low-key tale about a possible alien invasion MEANWHILE ON EARTH does the job. Here's the trailer:

Jérémy Clapin's MEANWHILE ON EARTH is out on digital platforms from Blue Finch Releasing on Monday 25th August 2025