Set 100 years into the future, this spectacular animated feature from Hungary depicts a poisoned world in which Earth’s remaining inhabitants populate domed cities and eat the dead, who are spliced at the age of 50 into plant matter thanks to very clever future science and equivalently bad future politics. When depressed Nora volunteers for government-assisted suicide at a mere 32, husband Stefan gives his head a shake, and decides to do a Logan’s Run out of the city to save her. The film plunks rotoscoped actors into its fabulously rendered futurescapes and it’s a haunting pleasure to behold, even a little sexy in a downbeat way. Any reading of the film will depend on where the viewer stands in relation to themes of ecological armageddon and bizarre totalitarian “solutions”, about which the film seems totally ambivalent, leaving space for a portion of the audience to indulge in a kind of perverse wish-fulfillment.

Stir, September 2023