Warning! This review contains spoilers.

To answer the question on everybody’s mind: No, controversial filmmaker Manuela Riviera’s new documentary The Reunion of the Survivors of Sigrún 7 doesn’t reveal what happened during the forty-five days the spaceship went missing on its way to Mars or how mission commander Ruben Corto died.

Much of the controversy surrounding The Reunion has been about the methods employed by Manuela Riviera. Remember, we are talking about a filmmaker who once waterboarded the protagonist in her feature The Resurrection: Back from the Dead (albeit with said person’s consent).

As improbable as it may sound, Riviera has outdone herself in her new film which became a sensation the moment we were told the four surviving members of Sigrún 7—Stanislav Kim, Loris Matzen, Evelyn N’Kono, and Isabella Quan—had agreed to be interviewed about the mission for the first time since their return to Earth thirty-eight years ago.

The film’s publicity, however, neglected to mention that the four survivors had not been informed about Riviera’s intentions in advance, resulting in the subsequent lawsuit and the delayed release.

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As a filmmaker, Riviera is known for her sparse cinematic style and, true to that, the opening shot of The Reunion is of an empty room. One by one, the four protagonists enter and are surprised to meet one another.

The real controversy occurs when the four realize they have been locked in and can’t leave the room. A distorted female voice then informs them they will only be released if they are willing to answer her questions. Riviera has been heavily criticized for her methods, but by using the locked room scenario as the frame for her film she manages to cleverly replicate the conditions for the first privately funded mission to Mars.

The crew had cameras on them 24/7, thereby turning Sigrún 7 into the first non-terrestrial reality show. That also made Sigrún 7 a sociological experiment in extreme where everyone got to see what happens when seven complete strangers are forced to spend nearly a year together surrounded by cold, airless space.

Much has been said and written about the selection of the crew where looks and personality apparently trumped skills and knowledge, but whoever handled casting did an amazing job and many people working in the space industry today gladly admit they owe their passion for it to Sigrún 7.

The crew played a large part in that. Of course, Sigrún 7 had its share of conflicts and drama but mostly it showed that cooperation and problem-solving is possible, no matter where you come from. For a while the crew of Sigrún 7 were heroes on Earth and everybody had their own favorite member (mine was Isabella Quan, the engineer geek). They were the finest role models we could wish for, which, of course, made what happened later so shocking and hard to understand.

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Why did Sigrún 7 deviate from its course and lose contact with Earth? The speculations have run from sabotage to incompetence, and the surviving crew members have only added to the mystery.

Loris Matzen’s infamous remark “I won’t speak ill of the dead” has been interpreted as an attempt to pin the blame on mission commander Ruben Corto. Because of the ensuing shitstorm, Matzen has kept a low profile ever since until Riviera forced him back into the spotlight. When the film confronts him with his old comment, he claims to have been misinterpreted but still leaves the impression that an onboard error led to the disaster.

N’Kono and Quan both say they believe in the common theory that the course had been miscalculated from the start, while well-known conspiracy theorist Kim is convinced Sigrún 7 was sabotaged by a national space agency.

Fortunately, Riviera doesn’t go down that road, but that leads to another controversial choice. By using holographic images of Ruben Corto, Dieter Hamilton, and Serafina Vlasic, she brings the crew back to its original seven.

And just when you think Riviera can’t go any further, the voice casually mentions that the room is the exact same size as the capsule the crew had to live in, having shutdown everything else in Sigrún 7 to save oxygen, water, and power.

During the four decades since the mission, Quan, N’Kono, and Kim have become worldwide celebrities, but it is fascinating to observe how quickly the four assume their old roles. Loris Matzen takes charge while celebrities like Stan Kim and Evelyn N’Kono are reduced to meek bit-part players.

At first, Isabella Quan appears to follow suit, replacing the strong and successful businesswoman of today with the shy-but-passionate nerd we all came to love. But then she recovers and refuses to play along. Her resistance adds an element of nerve and tension to the film it would otherwise have lacked, and she is the one who fights back, when the four are debating whether they should talk about the legendary forty-five days.

“Remember what we promised each other,” she says, and as a viewer you can’t help feeling conflicted. You are dying to know what happened on board Sigrún 7, but her passion also makes you root for her when she begs her former crewmates to keep the oath they once gave.

Serafina Vlasic came closest to breaking it when she published her autobiography, shortly before passing away after a long battle with leukemia. Riviera plays sequences from the audiobook which Vlasic narrated herself, and it’s her frail voice—more than anything—that manages to convey the emotions the crew went through. But even Vlasic chose not to reveal why Sigrún 7 was one member short when the spaceship unexpectedly returned to Earth.

Mission commander Ruben Corto had died in a tragic accident and his remains had been left in space, per his wishes. That was all the surviving members were willing to say, and nothing else could be drawn out of them.

Speculations ran wild, not helped by Dieter Hamilton’s suicide a few months after the return. Was Corto’s death really an accident? Had there been a mutiny onboard? Was Corto to blame for the ship going off course? Did the crew eat him when they ran out of supplies? (Riviera shoots that rumor down by documenting that Sigrún 7 had plenty of food in storage.)

As previously stated, nothing in The Reunion can be construed as a confession. We do, however, get a clear sense of the grief and guilt felt by the survivors, and the film’s strongest moments come when first Evelyn N’Kono and then Stan Kim burst into tears and start to address the holograms of Corto, Hamilton, and Vlasic. Even Isabella Quan and Loris Matzen are obviously moved by the situation and struggle to control their emotions.

We are watching a group of people who have been through an ordeal so traumatizing that none of us will ever be able to comprehend what it must have been like. But we also see a group with a profound love for each other and a bond so strong it can never be broken, no matter the years and the different directions their lives have taken them.

It is in this precise moment that Riviera’s controversial approach pays off. Even though the death of Corto remains an unsolved mystery, she finds nothing to support the accusations that it was murder. Instead, her film shows that while the four survivors are feeling guilt, it is not the guilt of having done something morally wrong. It is the guilt of having had long (and for the most part) successful lives.

Riviera seems to have come to the same conclusion. Immediately after this scene the door to the room is unlocked. Her protagonists have given everything and are free to leave.

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As usual, Riviera has refused to be interviewed so we don’t know what her original intentions for the film were. Was she hoping to learn what happened during the forty-five days? Or was she trying to push the four into finding the exact same qualities and abilities that made us admire them in the first place? She failed with the former but certainly succeeded with the latter.

Perhaps, that is why the lawsuit against Riviera eventually was dropped, finally allowing The Reunion to be shown.

For that, we can only be grateful. Sigrún 7, for all its successes and failures, boosted mankind’s dream of conquering space. The mission brought the space programs back to life and it is, without a doubt, the reason why we have bases on Mars today.

With The Reunion, we may not have gotten what we had expected or wished for. Instead, Manuela Riviera has given us the film both we and the crew of Sigrún 7 deserve.