The screen turns on and the dystopia suddenly becomes reality. We have traveled almost 50 years into the future, we are in 2073, and our greatest fears are already part of our daily lives. The authoritarianisms that we fear have finally managed to govern the planet, where surveillance and military drones walk through streets destroyed by war. This is the image projected by ‘2073’, the new science fiction film by filmmaker Asif Kapadia.
After passing through the Venice Biennale and the Sitges Festival, the film by the Oscar- and Grammy-winning filmmaker for the film ‘Amy’ premiered last Thursday at Cine Ciutat on the occasion of the Mallorca Evolution Festival. His new project, which will soon hit 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, control over population data and the rise of the extreme right. For Kapadia, there are no dystopias that are valid where reality is beginning to take shape.
It is not his first time at the Evolution Film Festival. On this occasion he comes to present his film 2073which he has described as “a punch in the stomach” to make us realize 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 is happening in the world. I wanted to bring all of that together in one movie. 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 topics. Some were concerned about what was happening to the environment, others about technology, others about surveillance. Everyone I interviewed felt that something was happening and that the world was heading 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 files and we did research 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. Since the sequences are independent, I wanted to have a central character and a voiceover that connects everything, 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 take it to a new level, if that was possible.
Returning to the immediate present: we are just a few days away from the elections in the United States, a date that coincides with the premiere of your film at the festival.
Everyone is afraid in America. Everyone is scared everywhere. Because we are connected and the elections in the United States affect us all. Everything that has happened in recent 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, primarily, is because of technology. Technology is being used to make us feel divided, to make us fight, to make us angry, to make us afraid and to take away our freedom. I just returned from the United States and people are literally telling me that there may not be democracy anymore when I visit them again.
I just came back from the United States and people are literally telling me that there may not be democracy anymore when I visit them again.
In the film, Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump appears 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 is changing the rules about how long they can be in power, or changing the rules about who can be prosecuted and who can’t. That was a little 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.
It is happening in different countries. People find excuses to stay in power. They find ways to tell us that there is a war and that we have to support them because they are safe, strong 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 have to support them because they are safe, strong 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 about the rise of authoritarianism as a global danger. Beyond the United States, what do you think about the situation in Europe, where the far right continues to gain ground?
I think that throughout Europe there is a shift towards the right and populism. My wife and I used to worry, a few years ago, what to do and where to escape if things got really bad. We have had Brexit in the UK, which was based entirely on lies and which has removed our freedom to travel and which has taken away the opportunity for children to study abroad.
In 2073 The protagonist’s visions of the past appear as an inspirational element to change reality. However, we see how the political use of the past is a central element in many far-right movements. When does the past serve to move forward and when does it not?
It’s a great question. What I wanted to do was present a film that for me is a series of sequences that function as a time capsule. Actually, it’s just the last ten years. I didn’t want to go too far back; I wanted to collect this from recent history, things you might remember but have forgotten, or things you didn’t see, and put it all together to create little time capsules on different topics. My challenge in this movie was largely the ending because we don’t know how to respond to this whole series of events. What I feel is that if we are worried, we should come together to change the political system.
For me it is very important that the film be seen in the cinema because I want it to be a collective experience, that we debate and talk about it, as we used to do before. You sat in a bar, in a square, and talked with your family around the table. At some point, technology has come to separate us. Now you’re sitting alone in the dark, arguing with people online you don’t even know.
At some point, technology has come to separate us. Now you’re sitting alone in the dark, arguing with people online you don’t even know
Often, when reflecting on dystopia, we distinguish the visions of Orwell, who represents the harshest repression, and Huxley, who leads us to think about control through consumption. Which of these visions do you think is most accurate when talking 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 amazing. 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 looks like Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ or ‘Blade Runner’
Finally, is it possible to look to the future with hope today?
I think so, but my main feeling is that continuing to think that everything will get better is not working. If the people in positions of power, who control information, news and technology, are very, very rich people, that becomes increasingly evident. They have made it clear to us which side they are on in the United States. They generally come from a very small section of society: they are white men from a specific education and background. We have to ask ourselves how we are going to survive if they are the ones in power.
Lately I’ve been talking to teenagers who watch YouTube and get their information online through different apps. There, the authoritarian right is very cunning and ahead of the game, because they are paying YouTubers to show very extreme and dark material. There are many people who are misogynistic, who hate women, black people, brown-skinned people, Muslims, and they are already working on this with teenagers. We must be mature to save them and act now, do whatever is necessary to protect them. Nothing will change through status quo and inaction. It will only change if we actually start making changes ourselves.
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