With 2073, Asif Kapadia reimagines the function of cinema as a platform for confronting the convergence of political repression, technological control, and environmental collapse. Known for crafting documentaries that extract emotional depth from archival material, he shifts here into an urgent hybrid mode—melding speculative storytelling with real-world footage to present a near-future that feels alarmingly familiar.
The film follows Ghost, a woman living in isolation decades after an unspecified global disaster known as “The Event.” She navigates a desolate city under constant surveillance, attempting to avoid detection by drones and biometric scanners. Her story unfolds without spoken dialogue, relying instead on an internal monologue that reflects her fear, memories, and political awakening. Asif Kapadia constructs this narrative using a blend of fictional scenes and actual footage, creating a film that serves simultaneously as warning and documentation.
A defining feature of 2073 is its cross-border perspective. Rather than focusing solely on Western democracies, Asif Kapadia highlights the global nature of authoritarianism. The film includes segments featuring Indian journalist Rana Ayyub, who has faced political harassment for her reporting on Narendra Modi’s administration, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa, known for exposing online disinformation and state-sponsored abuse in the Philippines. These voices form the backbone of the film’s documentary element, tying fictional collapse to ongoing realities.
Asif Kapadia’s own experiences inform much of the film’s anxiety about surveillance and profiling. Following the events of 9/11, he was subjected to repeated scrutiny by U.S. border authorities and placed on a watchlist, facing delays and interrogations that lasted for years. This personal history becomes an invisible framework in 2073, where Ghost’s every movement is subject to detection, classification, and potential punishment. The surveillance state presented in the film draws directly from existing practices, made even more disturbing by their familiarity.
The tension between digital visibility and political erasure drives the narrative forward. Ghost’s world is one in which information is weaponized, dissent is criminalized, and memory is a threat. In assembling the film’s many layers—interviews, protests, political speeches, and AI-generated simulations—Asif Kapadia demonstrates how authoritarian regimes increasingly rely on both analog violence and digital manipulation. The very architecture of power is rendered as algorithmic, ambient, and difficult to resist.
This expanded global lens is also reflected in the film’s villains. 2073 includes real footage of public figures such as Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, and Xi Jinping, positioning them not merely as historical actors but as architects of a political landscape that enabled collapse. Technology leaders like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel are also shown, raising questions about the corporate complicity in enabling state repression. For Asif Kapadia, these are not just characters in a news cycle—they are co-creators of a world where democracy, privacy, and truth are increasingly under siege.
The film’s hybrid form allows it to comment on these issues without didacticism. The fictional aspects offer emotional entry points, while the documentary segments deliver concrete context. This narrative fusion is essential to Kapadia’s vision, allowing him to depict authoritarianism not as an abstract threat but as a lived condition shaped by political, economic, and technological forces.
Asif Kapadia does not provide easy resolutions in 2073. Instead, he positions the act of remembering—and of documenting—as a form of resistance. Ghost’s story becomes a vessel through which the viewer is invited to ask: how did we get here, and what happens if we do nothing? The absence of definitive answers is part of the film’s strength. It respects the viewer’s intelligence while insisting on the urgency of the questions posed.
In a time when cinema is often reduced to spectacle, 2073 stands as a reminder of film’s capacity to engage, provoke, and unsettle. Asif Kapadia’s integration of multiple genres and media formats reaffirms his position as a filmmaker unafraid to innovate, and unafraid to confront.
