love and ecology at the heart of a post-apocalyptic animated film

In competition during the last edition of the Annecy Festival and the Berlinale, “Sky Dome 2123” portrays a society born in the aftermath of the ecological crisis. An adventure story between the reign of man and an ode to the living.

Sky Dome 2123, in cinemas from April 24, 2024, is the director’s first feature film Tibor Bánóczki and director Sarolta Szabó. The filmmakers rethink the Hungarian landscapes, the country from which they come, to create a future without flora and fauna. In this world of the next century, only human beings manage to survive.

Along the banks of the Danube, a river of which only the outline remains, an immense glass dome shelters a modern city, an era of everything automatic.

A real society at the heart of an arid environment, the inhabitants of this new Budapest work, walk, live with family… A life that appears at first glance to be fairly standard, but whose duration is limited.

The law in fact indicates that each individual must die on their 50th birthday in order to be transformed into food. With eighteen years left before being sacrificed for the community, Nóra chooses to have the germ implanted that will allow her transformation. Her husband Stefan does not accept this decision and seeks to save her.

An ode to life

Dried up bodies of water, trees generated by holograms… Sky Dome 2023 does not explicitly name the climate and ecological crisis, but undeniably places itself in its wake.

By choosing to set this story of anticipation in the near future, Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó strengthen the dialogue between eras, weaving the link between the science fiction apocalypse and the disruptions we face.

Sky Dome 2023 is a film about the decline of life. No more animals or plants: humans alone, deprived of any contact with the outside world. But the plot allows us to see the exterior of the dome. From the Slovak Tatras to Lake Balaton, the film offers sumptuous three-dimensional settings.

Designed from photographs of objects and natural materials, the settings sometimes give the impression of real shots. Like a final triumph of nature, only landscapes are endowed with this truly tangible appearance, this aspect of things destined to last.

Another look at the future

Between crossings of abandoned land and intrusions into risk areas, Sky Dome 2123 is a love story that probes the cruelty of a system born in the aftermath of the ecological crisis. Humans survive thanks to technology, but also thanks to modern cannibalism, where everyone is destined, after transformation into a plant, to feed their neighbor. A sacrifice necessary for the survival of the species.

Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó question the future of humanity and offer a rare reflection in science fiction films. The animation of the characters, carried out by rotoscoping, a technique which consists of drawing by hand over captures of actors, gives the characters a precarious, almost evanescent appearance. While skillfully responding to the codes of post-apocalyptic stories, Sky Dome 2123 shifts expectations and takes a different look at the future. What if the new world was created without men?

The sheet

Gender : Animation, Drama, Science fiction
Directors: Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó
Actors: Renátó Olasz, Zsófia Szamosi, Zsolt Nagy
Duration : 1h52
Exit : April 24 2024
Distributer : KMBO
Synopsis: 2123. In a future where drought has ravaged the Earth, humanity is forced to sacrifice part of the population: everyone over the age of 50 will be transformed into a tree. Society is governed by ruthless rules. The day Stefan sees his wife prematurely condemned by the system, he decides to take the greatest risks to change his destiny.