Written and Directed by Ross S. Anderson

From an ambitious project commissioned by Creative Artists Agency (CAA), with 5 times BAFTA award winning producer Adam Gee and spearheaded by Matt Daman, Ben Affleck and Jake Chapman, this short was part of a series of films exploring big ideas like the future of capitalism, A.I and humanity.  

The film is based around Effective Accelerationism, a radical ideology that embraces the inevitability of a world driven entirely by capitalism, where AI and technology reign supreme.

In a not too distant future, the story follows an outsider, a journalist sent to document a village’s way of life, as they uncover the truth behind the community’s rejection of modernity.

Their lives are a meticulously curated tableau of nostalgia: 35mm film projectors flicker in an old cinema, Polaroids capture moments of eerie stillness, record players spin crackling vinyl, and a creaking string quartet provides the soundtrack to their daily rituals. The village seems like a relic of a bygone era but as the film unfolds, it becomes clear that this idyllic retreat is not what it seems.

The village is not a refuge from this future but a controlled experiment, the inhabitants are both architects and subjects – with some a lot more aware of the situation than others. 

A love letter to 90’s cinema, the film’s meticulous attention to detail—its grainy anamorphic cinematography, haunting score played by long forgotten instruments and prosthetic effects — serves as both a homage to and a critique of the past. It asks whether nostalgia is a refuge or a trap, and whether the future, as envisioned by accelerationism, is a utopia or a dystopia.

The village’s aesthetic, a pastiche of David Lynch’s dreamlike surrealism and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s whimsical grotesquery, becomes increasingly disorienting – questioning not only the reason for the village but also what our future world will owe to the technology it creates. 

 

DoP – Nick Lee-Sheild

Sound – Jack Hobbs

Props – James Hodgson

Hair and Makeup – Evie Cullen

Prosthetic Effects – Graham Taylor, Mim Williams, Evie Cullen

Post Production – Ross S. Anderson

 

STARRING

Nick Cornwall, Nevena White, Lladel Bryant, Susan Anderson, Josiah Balota, Porridge.

Directing, Produced, VFX, Editing, Colour, Sound

Produced by Dustfarm