QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM VENICE

The year is 2073 and people fight for their survival in “New San Francisco”, a vaguely futuristic version of the Californian city, with flying cars, canine robots and some hapless fugitives desperately avoiding detention. The world has turned into some sort of post-apocalyptic jumble, following a horrific event in 2036. This surviving society grapples with extreme authoritarianism and surveillance. The outlaws send a written message: “if this reaches you, please do something before it’s too late”. It’s never clear whether the missive is aimed at people from the past or the future, what exactly happened in 2036, or even if there are survivors outside this Golden City from hell. The story is as bizarre and incoherent as it sounds.

Parallel to this poorly staged and bizarre snapshots of the future, the accomplished British director of Senna (2010), Amy (2015) and Diego Maradona (2019) inserts footage of recent developments from the past 20 years or so into various parts of the country into his latest creation. He focuses on three topics, but doesn’t seem to understand how they intersect and complement each other. The objective is to say that one of these challenges cause the unnamed 2036 disaster. The problem is that the topics are just too broad-brush and obvious. Kapadia wants to address all worldly afflictions in just 82 minutes. He could have been a little less ambitious, and have chosen his battles more wisely.

The first topic is authoritarianism. We are told that 72% of the current world’s population live under oppressive rule (the figure has no source and no explanation). A Filipino activist speaks at length about Eduardo Duterte’s reign of terror, the only extensive talking heads interview in the film. The former president of the Philippines boasts that he killed people with his own hands. He even confesses that he instrumentalises his rhetoric in order to instil fear and control the population. Modi’s racist policies, and his repeated attempts to mortify and ostracise Muslims is also a central topic. As is Farage’s xenophobic Brexit, and the Chinese treatment of the Uiguri. Each and every such minority citizen is profiled by Beijing, with their DNA, facial scan and fingerprints duly collected. Their treatment is compared to the Holocaust. Strangely, Israel and the United States are almost entirely ignored. Images of Trump and Netanyahu appear briefly, and it is acknowledged that Bibi intends to take Palestine over, but that’s about it.

The second topic is big data and extreme surveillance. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg talk hogwash and they go about their business. The bizarre antics include rocketing into space and dropping then to earth inside a tiny capsule. These three people are establishing a shelter for themselves underground and also on other planets, should a major disaster strike. That shouldn’t be difficult, given their fast-rising 12-digit fortune (detailed figures are provided). Most crucially, these not-so-trustworthy gentlemen possess detailed information about each one of us. This makes poor earthlings like you and I very vulnerable, and gives them more leverage than government.

The third topic is global warming. We watch as vast areas of the Brazilian Amazon burn, as we learn that former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro helped to encourage deforestation. An indigenous voice asks that the native inhabitants are left to care for the land, yet there is no indication of how that could happen.

The archive footage does not blend in with the sci-fi enactments at all. The outcome is an aesthetically-clumsy and thematically-disjointed film. An awful discovery channel music score makes the whole affair even stranger. 2073 is a well-intentioned however empty call to action. It urges viewers to take matters into their own hands in order to avoid the mysterious 2036 event, but with so many topics to hand it is impossible to decide where to start. Preachy, cliched, fatalistic and shallow. A misfire in the career of a talented filmmaker. Maybe Kapadia should return to what he does best: making biopics.

2073 just premiered in the 81st edition of the Venice International Film Festival.