In Kap Atlantis, Hjelm’s interest in the (at times destructive) legacy that one generation passes on to the next takes on an almost existential dimension. The title was taken from Harry Martinson’s epic tale Aniara (1956). In this pessimistic vision of the future, 8,000 refugees find themselves traveling through space on an unknown trajectory after Kap Atlantis, described as an imaginary place on Earth in Martinson’s science fiction, has become uninhabitable.

In Kap Atlantis, Hjelm mainly works with new film material, making references to both Christianity and Islam, represented by the Koran surahs sung by Abdullah Ibrahim and the quotation from the First Book of Moses which the crew of the Apollo sent to Earth as a Christmas greeting in 1968. Indirectly, this final part of the trilogy also alludes to September 11, 2001, creating a link to the apocalyptic atmosphere created by the appearance of the atom bomb. This atmosphere characterizes the 1950s, the time in which Mats Hjelm was born and Aniara was written.

Like in White Flight and Man to Man, the non-linear, rhythmic narrative style of Kap Atlantis calls into question the chronology of events and our idea of historiography. Old and new material, filmic imagery and texts merge, forming a dense narrative on history and memory, collective and personal experiences against the backdrop of masculinity, power and violence.