Release Date – 1st January 2025, Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 23 minutes, Director – Asif Kapadia
Documentary intersecting images of the divided world today with scenes envisaging a dystopian future where freedom has been completely removed.
“When you’re desperate, just surviving, you can’t see what’s been taken away, you can’t fight back” says Samantha Morton’s Ghost as she traipses around the rubble of the dystopian future. Only just getting by on scraps, hope seemingly having faded away, she reflects on the past and where things went wrong. Flashback to 50 years beforehand and Asif Kapadia’s documentary shows a divided world crumbling and crumbling. From climate change and protest crackdowns to right-wing politicians on the world stage and the constant rise of tech moguls Kapadia’s view of the world today is a dark one constantly hurtling towards the empty future he envisages.
There’s an undeniable intensity to the documentary segments and the way in which they’re edited together, making for the strongest elements of the film. They may bring about a sense of wondering who this film is for – throughout it appears to be preaching to the choir, although with messages to rouse the audience, opening and closing text reminds that “it may not be too late for you”, otherwise “people thought the world will end, but it doesn’t, it’s us who will end”.
However, even with this in mind the film still only largely works up to a point if you agree with what it’s depicting. Perhaps this is because of the jumps to 2073, where Morton’s character is seemingly being tracked down by the longstanding dictatorial government – we’re told in the opening stages that Chairwoman Trump has just celebrated 30 years in power. The sections in the future, taking a step outside of documentary, never quite have the same hit and seem slower compared to the heat and speed, much of which appears to come from Kapadia, of news footage of the world as it is today. The base message works, but when cropping up in sections to the side of recent archival clips and images it perhaps doesn’t have the same push that it could have if it were more involved and amongst the most direct moments, where it has the most impact, more often.
At just 83-minutes the short run-time is certainly helpful in keeping the film generally concise yet still effective in its grander and most upfront moments, although as a whole things are very direct from start to finish. Certain moments might feel slower as they take a step away from the most direct and impassioned sections constructed of footage showing the directions in which the world is going, the moments showing a view of what happens once we get there, however, don’t quite have the same punch. A punch which doesn’t always arise as much as you’d hope as you sometimes question who the film is for as it largely appears to attempt to stir action from those who already agree.
There are effective moments in the intense compilations of news footage from the world today, however when 2073 jumps to its view of the future the same feeling isn’t there as it slightly slows down to give statements and messages about action to a crowd who are likely already on board with most of its points.
Just A Little Bit Random 