Edouard Salier's Tropic: background story

Edouard Salier’s genre-twisting sci-fi movie Tropic went on release in France on 2 August 2023, following positive previews at film festivals. Set in the near-future or possibly a world parallel to ours, Tropic’s story is framed by space exploration and sci-fi themes, but the heart of the movie is an intense family drama, exploring how trauma impacts a tight-knit family.

Twin brothers Lázaro et Tristán share a dream to become astronauts. Enrolled at a highly competitive space school, they follow a programme of intense study and physical training. Tristán is the school’s star student, but disaster strikes when he is physically and mentally scarred by a mysterious toxic substance that falls from the sky. Following this tragic incident, it seems as if the sacrifices made by the boys’ mother Mayra, and everything their family has strived for is in jeopardy. This leaves Lázaro with difficult choices to make.

Like many science fiction movies, Tropic pushes the boundaries of our imagination, yet writer and director Edouard Salier was clear that he wanted the story to be grounded in a believable world: “It's an imaginary world inspired by a tangible reality.”

Without a blockbuster budget, writer-director Edouard Salier was able to successfully create an authentic setting for the drama, thanks to diligent research and a little help from ESA. Thanks to ESA a sprinkling of authentic details such as photographs and props helped to make the locations for some key scenes convincing.

Meeting and talking with space experts was also invaluable in researching the background for Tropic. Edouard Salier acknowledged the speed with which ESA opened its doors to help the project and the generosity of space experts in sharing their knowledge of the industry: “Talking to engineers and scientists helped me to approach my film with more confidence.”

To create an authentic space school setting, the writers of Tropic researched real-world space training programmes, including the astronaut training carried out by ESA at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne Germany. The combination of academic learning, physical training and simulation exercises the students undertake creates a convincing background for the drama.

A spot of budget-conscious location filming in French Guiana, complete with a rocket launching in the background, also helped to add authenticity to the dramatic conclusion of Tropic. Together, these real-world elements create a believable setting that underpins the fantastical sci-fi elements of Tropic.

ESA has been increasingly involved in supporting filmmakers through its Branding and Partnerships Office. This support has included providing technical consultancy, props, designs such as astronaut patches and the ESA logo, and real-world space locations for filming. For the 2019 astronaut movie Proxima, ESA provided all these elements and even supplied extras! Through partnerships with filmmakers, ESA reaches new audiences and increases the visibility of Europe’s real-world space ambitions.