Apocalypse-themed series like FEAR THE WALKING DEAD, have shown us that massive food storage only works on the short term. It does not save us from the actual danger. An apocalyptic classic like CONTAGION already was preaching about the importance of hygiene and respiratory masks ten years ago. Namely, when trying to stop a global pandemic. So, can we learn from fictional apocalypses?
In FICTION FOR FUTURE we ask masters of the Genre like Roland Emmerich, Terry Gilliam and Frank Schätzing, what their dramatic tales of the end can tell about the future. How will challenges like climate change and pandemics change our lives? Can we overcome them? And if yes, then how?
Will we fight for survival on a chaotic desert planet, as the movie HELL suggests? Will it be freezing, like in SNOWPIERCER and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW? Or will we swim onimprovised rafts in an unhospitable WATERWORLD? What will our society look like, what parts of our morality will survive in this gruesome fight?
Not too long ago, we thought that emancipation was a great achievement of the modern era. But the Lockdown has taught us: It seems as if we are all too quickly falling back into antiquated gender roles during the crisis. In the face of an epochal threat, where will the role of women settle in the field of tension between walking incubator, as in HANDMAID’S TALE, and androgynous fighting machine, as in THE MATRIX?
What does the genre tell us about the dangers of future technologies? In the face of increasingly sophisticated algorithms and omnipresent surveillance technology, will we become transparent people, as Theresa Hannig and Zoë Beck depict in their dystopian novels? Or will we have to completely redefine our humanity in the face of increasingly intelligent machines, as suggested by the manga GHOST IN THE SHELL and the game CYBERPUNK 2077.
During the Corona pandemic, the end-times genre is experiencing a renaissance. CONTAGION, although ten years old, has made it into the top ten of the iTunes charts, TV stations and VoD providers are broadcasting highly successful disaster scenarios. Where does the increased interest in the genre come from? What is the socio-psychological need does it fulfill? Does the visualization of the fictional catastrophe banish our fears of the real dangers? It seems that in these uncertain times, end times stories should tell us something about our uncertain future. Are they a kind of virtual dress rehearsal for the crisis? Are we hoping for a code of conduct for the pandemic, an instruction manual for global warming, a survival manual for the apocalypse from these stories?
Written and directed: by Viola Löffler
Sound: Guido Bornemann, Emanuele Correani, Ben Kaufmann, Markus Kunz, Sirko Löschner, Sandro Joen Perez Tejeda
Sound Mixing: Peer Hoffmann
Camera: Ricardo Garzon, Don McVey, Niclas Reed Middleton, Markus Müller, Leo Dorian Stiebeling, Brian M. Tang
Editing: Hans Kranich
Graphics: Luca Bohn, Felix Ferger
Color Grading: Klaus Kübel
A K22film production on behalf of 3sat
First broadcast: 06.11.2021, 3sat