2073 Looks Towards A Terrifying Real-World Sci-Fi Horror
We had plenty of great films about the end-times, dystopian futures, and post-apocalyptic scenarios of what we could become if we don’t change our ways as humans traversing the endless void of space on a floating rock. And while most of them tell a tale of what may come our way, none of them paint a picture as bleak as Asif Kapadia’s 2073. Check out the trailer below:
At its core, 2073 is a hybrid that blends the elements of documentaries and sci-fi thrillers by mixing plenty of archival news footage from our present, but from the perspective of a distant future that resulted in the death of democracy and our planet.
The film is set in a dystopian future, in a world where years of climate-related disasters and the rise of authoritarianism have transformed both human society and Earth into a hellscape. The movie has a narrative of its own, along with a protagonist who lives in a grid, but the execution of this particular narrative is what makes the movie so chilling.
What makes 2073 so terrifying is the fact that much of its backstory is currently unfolding on a domestic and global stage.
As per the 2073 trailer, the film’s narrative is littered with real-world newsreels and various interviews with journalists that discuss the gradual erosion of democracy that’s happening in today’s world and how, from the perspective of the future, this erosion paves the way for a terrifying new world order based on blind obedience and compliance.
Not only that, but 2073 also details how various political figures, such as Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, and Narendra Modi, enlist the help of tech titans who play the role of fostering the spread of fascism by controlling the flow of information.
2073 is set in a dystopian future, in a world where years of climate-related disasters and the rise of authoritarianism have transformed both human society and Earth into a hellscape.
Of course, all of this happens as the Earth goes through climate change that gradually heats it up to unbearable levels. All this is partially thanks to the aforementioned military-industrial complex of both soft and hard powers, which only offered band-aid solutions to the solution-hungry masses while they lined their pockets with more money and accumulated more power.
And what makes 2073 even more interesting is the ongoing imagery of police forces clamping down on protests, which really showcases the end of democracy as we know it from the textbooks.
Edmund Burke said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing, but 2073 shows us the hypocrisy of modern democracy in which so-called democrats who serve the people use the very funds from our taxes to violently defend their rule and position of power once the people don’t want them in such positions anymore.
2073 premiered on September 3, 2024, at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, but it still lacks an official release date.
2073 is perhaps the most relevant shout of rage against authoritarian forces devastating our world and society and against our own complicity born of inaction against the forces of evil. The movie premiered on September 3, 2024, at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, but it still lacks an official release date. Considering how time-specific its narrative seems to be, it probably won’t be long before we can witness it on bigger screens.
