2073 Review

Sci-fi media while inherently futuristic also are somewhat baked in reality. Shows like Star Trek have never strayed away from showcasing very prevalent ideas at the time in their episodes. The episode A Private Little War is trying to comment on the Vietnam War and uses Star Trek and its cast of characters to make that commentary. 2073 is part narrative feature part documentary with the narrative focusing on a distant feature where totalitarianism is commonplace. Trump has been in office for a record 30 years and global warming has engulfed parts of the world whether it be due to floods or wildfires. We see this future through the lens of Ghost (Samantha Morton) who lives off the grind and dives to find scraps so that she and others underground can survive, before flashing back to our present where we see how our actions currently and in the recent past have put us onto the course for this fictionalised future to become our reality.

2073 has no subtlety to its message, over its short but speedy 1 hour and 25-minute run time, you are beaten to a bloody pulp about why writer and director Asif Kapadia believes we are potentially destined for this bleak and derelict future. I am not against a film being obvious in its messaging and how it presents it, but it can be overly bleak. It wants to be a film that says this is a possible future but if people like you and me rise, we can prevent it. However, while it wants to have a hopefully ending it never shows us examples of positive change. While at times we see some footage of BLM rallies, there is no positivity in a film that wants us to change course.

We see footage from all times and countries, whether it be campaign footage of the 2016 Brexit referendum, the 2020 Hong Kong protests, to the brutal mass killers of drug dealers in the Philippines in the early 2000s. All the footage shown and narrated by investigative journalists or analysts is powerful in regards to the message about the rise of right-wing fascism, to tech bros profit of said political figures, and how global warming is destroying the world. It paints a very bleak and accurate picture of the current state of the world that is hard not to get invested in, and seeing the real horrors unfold and how it could ultimately lead to the future depicted here.

The future depicted is nothing short of horrifying and very much based on the reality we see in the documentary footage. I just wish 2073 was more than a doom-and-gloom look at what could happen, and while it is intriguing and a worthwhile watch, it could have done so much more.