In a future of strict population control, seven sisters share one single life
In short: Set in 2073, the science-fiction thriller What Happened to Monday follows identical septuplets forced to live as one person. To survive a brutal one-child policy, they rotate their public appearances based on the days of the week. When one sister vanishes, their carefully constructed reality begins to violently unravel.
Directed by Tommy Wirkola and released in 2017, the film depicts a dystopian society managed by the European Federation’s Child Allocation Bureau. This agency enforces a rigid one-child policy, claiming that illegal siblings are placed in cryosleep. Terrence Settman, who raised his seven granddaughters in total secrecy, trained them to adopt the singular identity of Karen Settman. Each sister is permitted to leave their apartment only on the day matching her name, ensuring the world never discovers their true number.
The narrative tension ignites when Monday fails to return home. As her siblings investigate, they uncover a web of political corruption involving bureau head Nicolette Cayman. The sisters discover that the bureau is not preserving children in cryosleep, but rather incinerating them. This revelation forces the remaining sisters into a desperate, high-stakes conflict against the bureau’s security forces, leading to significant casualties among the siblings as they fight to expose the truth.
Noomi Rapace portrays all seven sisters, a role originally written for a male lead before Wirkola adapted the concept. Filmed in Romania with a $20 million budget, the project drew inspiration from the world-building found in films like Children of Men and Blade Runner. While critics offered mixed reviews—noting both its high-concept premise and occasional narrative gaps—the film remains a notable entry in the genre for its ambitious central performance and dark, speculative premise regarding state-mandated population control.
The film concludes with the collapse of the bureau’s authority, as the truth about the incineration program is broadcast to the public. With the restrictive laws dismantled, the surviving sisters are finally free to exist as individuals rather than shadows of a single persona. The story serves as a grim exploration of identity, sacrifice, and the lengths to which a family will go to protect its own in an oppressive regime.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: What Happened to Monday
- Also: Wikidata — What Happened to Monday · CC0
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