Aniara (2018) is a Swedish sci-fi film written and directed by Hugo Lilja and Pella Kågerman. It is an adaptation of the 1956 Swedish epic poem of the same name by Harry Martinson. It depicts a dystopian, distant future in which extreme climate change, war, famine, disease, social collapse, pollution, and lawlessness force humans to…
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Seconds (1966) is a sci-fi psychological thriller directed by John Frankenheimer. In my eyes, it’s a perfectly made film, and I found it to be a fascinating exploration of several existential themes: identity, choice, desire, fantasy, regret, eternal youth, and the wish to start life again. (The philosopher Slavoj Žižek analyses Seconds in his 2006 documentary…
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Have you ever dreamt of being an astronaut? I mean, who wouldn’t want to travel way above the Earth, to see it from above, and to voyage through space to other planets? It’s the stuff of dreams. But, of course, only a select few actually turn this childhood dream into a reality. Alternatively, if you…
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The whole concept of virtual reality – especially full immersion in a virtual, artificial world – has been a favourite topic of many science fiction writers. The idea has also featured in many speculative and philosophical questions, such as: What is reality? How do we distinguish reality from illusion? And so on. Loosely defined, virtual…
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Ilene Meyer (1938-2009) was a self-trained oil painter whose work combines realism, fantasy, surrealism, and psychedelic colours and patterns. Her art was used on the cover of books by science fiction writers, including Philip K Dick.
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