see also
original title:
Index Zero
directed by:
cast:
Simon Merrells, Ana Ularu, Antonia Liskova, Bashar Rahal, Ralitsa Paskaleva, Mya-Lecia Naylor, Velislav Pavlov, Meto Jovanovski, Ivo Tonchev, Plamen Manassiev, Alexandra Lopez
screenplay:
Lorenzo Sportiello, Claudio Corbucci, Francesco Cioce
cinematography:
editing:
set design:
costume design:
music:
Lorenzo Sportiello, Alex Campedelli
producer:
production:
Cine Video Corporation, supported by Ministero della Cultura
world sales:
country:
Italy
year:
2014
film run:
84'
format:
colour
festivals & awards:
2035, after the world economic crisis. A forward perspective of Europe. Kurt and Eva are going to have a baby but they have to face a long and hard trip to join a new and richer world where to enjoy freedom. They are about to succeed in it but they are caught and sent to the Welcome Centre. Here only sustainable people are accepted. As pregnant, Eva can not be sustainable so she is brought apart to the Expulsion Centre. Kurt turns into a rebel and wants to free Eva as soon as he can. So they escape and hide themselves just for one night. Before leaving Eva starts having contractions; Kurt brings her slyly to the hospital; but there is no doctor who knows how to make women give birth in the illegal “convential way”...
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT:
I consider Index Zero a
humanist science-fiction film. I wanted to bring
an intimist, European approach to a genre film.
The realistic mise-en-scène makes the depiction of
the future as naturalistic as possible, and even the
abundant visual effects are invisible, there to serve
the story. The narrative is rigorously subjective.
To avoid the risk of being didactic, the viewer
accompanies the lead characters as they discover
the rules of this world they are in, experiencing
the events along with them. Through the eyes
of the two immigrants, in fact, we’ve chosen to
grapple with current issues linked to the future of
the United States of Europe and the sustainability
of economies and peoples. Sustainability is now
perceived as a positive value, but the film examines
its extreme applications and consequences. Indeed,
using genre as a metaphor for contemporary life
is the most intriguing use to which science fiction
can be put. Index Zero is not so much a portrayal of
a dystopian future as a realistic projection of our
dystopian present.