Director Asif Kapadia is best known for his documentaries but this is a potentially uneasy mixture of doc and drama. The fictional part is set in the dystopian future of 2073. The great Samantha Morton plays a survivor of a near apocalyptic series of events. She tries to survive in the authoritarian state of New San Francisco, hanging onto her memories of the past, but is sure that one day the police will come for her. Interspersed with Morton’s story are sections that explain how society broke down. Those are real news stories from the last 30 years, along with thoughts of journalists and activists.
We see the how the alliance of a handful of the mega rich (Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos etc.) with authoritarian leaders (Modhi, Duterte, Trump, Xi Jinping etc.) have perpetuated lies that has shaped a world designed to enrich them with even more wealth and power whilst subjugating the majority and paying no heed to the climate emergency. Now, that might be moving into tin-foil-hat- conspiracy-theory territory, but Kapadia delivers a lucid argument, packed with examples. In a week when Donald Trump is cosying up to fellow fascist Vladimir Putin whilst declaring himself a King and accusing Ukraine of starting a war with Russia, it is hard to claim the writer/director is being fanciful.
Amidst all the horrific images, one clip of venture capitalist Peter Thiel explaining how homelessness in San Francisco is a good thing, as it increased the value of the richest peoples’ houses, particularly hit home for me. As did a clip of a particularly smug Elon Musk gleefully saying that AI will replace all jobs whilst giving no concern at all to the billions of people who will be destitute as a result.
2073 has certainly attracted some hostile reviews in the right wing press, but for those of us despairing about the future of the world under an increasing populist rule, it is a timely howl of outrage.
Rating: 9 out of 10