The screen lights up and the dystopia suddenly becomes reality. We have traveled almost 50 years into the future, it is 2073, and our greatest fears are already part of our daily lives. The authoritarianisms we fear have finally succeeded in governing the planet, where surveillance and military drones roam the streets destroyed by war. This is the image projected by “2073”, the new science fiction film from filmmaker Asif Kapadia.
After having passed through the Venice Biennale and the Sitges Festival, the film by the Oscar-winning and Grammy-winning filmmaker for the film ‘Amy’ was previewed last Thursday at Cine Ciutat during the Evolution Festival from Majorca. His new project, which will soon be released in theaters, is, in his words, a “punch in the gut” for a society that has lost the ability to be surprised by the horrors of climate change, the control of demographic data and the rise in population. extreme right. For Kapadia, there are no valid dystopias where reality begins to take shape.
This is not his first participation in the Evolution Film Festival. On this occasion he comes to present his film 2073which he described as a “punch in the gut” to make us understand that we must act in the face of the dangers that threaten us. Do you think we have lost the ability to surprise ourselves?
The idea of making this film came about because I was worried about everything that was happening in the world. I wanted to bring it all together in one film. So I started interviewing journalists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Argentina, France, Italy, Turkey; that is, with many people around the world who were specialists in different subjects. Some were worried about what was happening to the environment, others about technology, still others about surveillance. Everyone I interviewed had a feeling that something was happening and that the world was going in a bad direction, in a downward spiral. Democracy, the climate and our freedom were under attack.
Then I started working with a team to collect records and we researched for two years. I always wanted to play with structure and make a genre film, almost like a horror or science fiction film, but based on facts, in reality. As the sequences are independent, I wanted to have a central character and a voiceover that ties everything together, like in a classic dystopian film or novel. That was my goal: to do something about the present, but also to play with the documentary form and bring it to a new level, if that was possible.
Let’s return to the immediate present: we are a few days before the elections in the United States, a date which coincides with the premiere of your film at the festival.
In America, everyone is afraid. Everywhere, everyone is afraid. Because we are connected and the elections in the United States affect us all. Everything that has happened in the last few years can be a positive thing, but I feel like it can also be a negative thing. Here’s what journalists told me: The reason it seems like everything is happening negatively at the same time everywhere is mainly because of technology. Technology is used to divide us, make us fight, make us angry, scare us, and take away our freedom. I just came back from the US and people are literally telling me there might not be democracy when I visit them again.
I just came back from the US and people are literally telling me there might not be democracy when I visit them again.
In the film, Ivanka Trump, the daughter of Donald Trump, emerges as a major global risk to our future. What does this character represent in your film?
One of the things that has happened in many dictatorships has been to change the rules about how long they can stay in power, or to change the rules about who can be prosecuted and who can’t. It was a small visual reference to the idea that someone in America could, one day, stay in power for thirty years by changing all the rules and rewriting the Constitution.
This happens in different countries. People find excuses to stay in power. They find ways to tell us that there is a war and that we must support them because they are strong and safe people and that we cannot trust the opposition. We are living in a very serious moment where people do not know where we are going and you cannot protest because you are arrested.
People find excuses to stay in power. They find ways to tell us that there is a war and that we must support them because they are strong and safe people and that we cannot trust the opposition. We are living in a very serious moment where people do not know where we are going and you cannot protest because you are arrested.
You have spoken of the rise of authoritarianism as a global danger. Beyond the United States, what do you think of the situation in Europe, where the far right continues to gain ground?
I think that everywhere in Europe there is a shift towards the right and populism. A few years ago, my wife and I were wondering what to do and where to escape if things got really bad. We had Brexit in the UK, which was entirely based on lies and took away our freedom to travel and took away children’s opportunities to study abroad.
In 2073 The protagonist’s visions of the past appear as an element of inspiration to change reality. However, we see how the political use of the past is a central element in many far-right movements. When is the past useful for moving forward and when is it not?
That’s a great question. What I wanted was to present a film which for me is a series of sequences which function like a time capsule. In fact, it’s only the last ten years. I didn’t want to go back too far; I wanted to bring it all together from recent history, from things you might remember but have forgotten, or things you haven’t seen, and put it all together to create little time capsules about different subjects. My challenge in this film was largely the ending because we don’t know how to react to this whole series of events. What I think is that if we are worried, we should come together to change the political system.
For me, it is very important that the film is seen in the cinema because I want it to be a collective experience, that we debate it and talk about it, as we did before. You sat at a bar in a square and chatted with your family around the table. At some point, technology ended up separating us. Now you’re sitting alone in the dark, arguing with people online that you don’t even know.
At some point, technology ended up separating us. Now you’re sitting alone in the dark, arguing with people online that you don’t even know
Often, when we think about dystopia, we distinguish the visions of Orwell, who represents the harshest repression, and Huxley, who leads us to think of control through consumption. In your opinion, which of these visions is the most accurate when we talk about today’s world?
I think that A happy world, by Huxley, is probably the one I would be most inclined to consider now, although it is somewhat less read. 1984, by Orwell, is a common reference, which we also mention at the end of our film. I also think that A clockwork orange It’s amazing, and I think the movie Children of men It’s incredible. In the film I try to include references to many other films and documentaries. Today’s world also looks like Blade runner.
Today’s world resembles Huxley’s “Brave New World” or “Blade Runner”
Finally, is it possible today to look to the future with hope?
I think so, but my main feeling is that continuing to think that everything will get better doesn’t work. If the people in positions of power, who control information and information and technology, are very, very wealthy people, this becomes more and more obvious. They made it clear to us which side they were on in the United States. They generally come from a very small part of society: they are white men from a specific education and background. We must ask ourselves how we will survive if they are in power.
Lately I’ve been talking to teens who watch YouTube and get their information online through different apps. The authoritarian right there is very cunning and ahead of the game, because they pay YouTubers to show very extreme and dark material. There are a lot of people who are misogynistic, who hate women, black people, brown people, Muslims, and they are already working on it with teenagers. We must be mature enough to save them and act now, do whatever is necessary to protect them. Nothing will change status quo and inaction. This will only change if we actually start making changes ourselves.
