Samantha Morton plays a mute survivor in the near future in a bold blend of sci-fi and nonfiction inspired by Chris Marker’s 1962 film La Jetée

Wendy Ide | The Guardian | January 4, 2025

There are two options facing film-makers in a world that is, not to put too fine a point on it, going to absolute hell. One is to serve up escapism and a brief respite from the relentless spiral of enshittification. The other is to take the approach favoured by Asif Kapadia (best known for the documentaries Senna and Amy) in this bold and harrowing blend of sci-fi and nonfiction: to confront the problems head-on.

Inspired by the 1962 short film La Jetée by Chris Marker, 2073 acts partly as a warning from a blighted future. Samantha Morton stars as a mute survivor, living a solitary, scavenger’s subsistence in a post-apocalyptic near future. The fictional strand is cut with documentary elements, dealing with climate crisis, the rise of the far right, surveillance, genocide and the looming threat of AI, which explain how the dystopian future came about. It’s a tricky balance, and one that the film doesn’t always quite pull off, between sounding a warning and screaming with existential terror; between galvanising the audience into action and plunging them into despair.

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