Despite having a wealth of experience directing narrative film and television with the likes of Mindhunter and The Warrior, Asif Kapadia is almost definitely best known for his work as a documentarian on films such as Amy, Senna, Diego Maradona, and, most recently, tennis close-up Federer: Twelve Final Days. With his latest directorial effort however, sci-fi thriller 2073, Kapadia is looking to cross the streams, blurring the boundaries between narrative and non-fiction filmmaking to paint a sobering portrait of the dystopia that awaits us if we continue on our current post-Brexit, present Putin and Trump and Milei spearheaded course. Led by Samantha Morton, Naomi Ackie, and Hector Hewie, 2073 — if the fascinating first trailer is anything to go by — looks quite unlike anything else we've seen this year. Check it out below:
Wildfires, surveillance drones, riots, and an Elon Musk jump scare set the scene for Kapadia's newest movie, which boldly asserts itself as neither fiction nor documentary, but rather "a warning" — a post-catastrophe reflection on the road to hell as recollected by Morton's New San Franciscan resident known simply as Ghost. Blending immersive POV drama, delicately dropped in sci-fi accoutrements, morbid interview clips with the likes of Maria Ressa, Carole Cadwalladr, Rana Ayyub, Ben Rhodes, and more, and a wealth of troubling archival footage, the trailer alone for 2073 is as hard to look at as it is to look away from, joining the ranks of Alex Garland's Civil War and (perhaps to a slightly lesser extent) Gareth Edwards' The Creator in a growing trend of cinematic pleas to avert humanity's impending collapse.
Here's the official synopsis: "2073 is a ‘true sci-fi’ horror. A warning of the world we will get if we don’t act now. Ghost (Morton) lives off-grid in a dystopian New San Francisco in the year 2073. The world is controlled by Libertarians, Dictators and Tech Bros. There is no dissent, no freedom. Everyone is monitored, people disappear and the net is closing on Ghost. Through a genre-busting mix of archive and drama, Ghost witnesses the terrifying threats facing us: a Democratic recession, the rise of neo-fascism, the Climate Disaster and the intrusion of surveillance technology. This is not science fiction. This is happening now.”
Inspired by 1962 time travelling French short La Jetée, Kapadia described his upcoming feature in a statement accompanying the new trailer as an attempt to "connect the dots between many complex issues and countries in a single cinematic film." And whilst we may not have a release date for this one just yet (though it being a Film4 co-production should guarantee a UK launch soon enough), we will be seated to see how Kapadia connects those dots when 2073 arrives. The movie that is, not the year (hopefully!).