Sky Dome 2123

The essence of science fiction is to give its audience food for thought through visions reflecting the phenomena of the existing society and world reimagined in their possible future form. Most cinematic contributions to the genre rather disregard that essence in favour of superficially stimulating attractions, particularly action sequences, dramatic twists, star actors and extravagant special effects. Though the use of animation would lend itself to that approach, White Plastic Sky does not rely on bombastic scenes, but rather on giving the audience impetuses to think. Nevertheless, as a sombre and melancholic mood piece, it avoids literal statements and concentrates on deploying as many of those small impetuses as possible, which the viewer either catches or not. After all, the journey across a futuristic Hungary after a global environmental catastrophe is conceived as a sequence of reasons to stop and present other perspectives on the central themes comprising the definition of humanity, clinging to life and the difficulty of accepting a perspective other than the existentially self-centred one. (30/09/2023)