★★☆☆☆
DYSTOPIAN sci-fi drama is not an easy thing to do as it has to create a believable and aesthetically authentic world for its characters to exist within, and for its probing moral, societal and political questions to take root and flourish.
This well-meaning and ambitious but ultimately lacking example of that most difficult of sub-genres is based on the bestselling novel by György Dragomán and presents itself as something of a combo of Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun and The Hunger Games franchise. It’s nowhere near as good as either of them or the many others it constantly brings to mind.
The plot takes place in an alternate version of our world where, for the last three decades, society has been living under a totalitarian government, literally and ideologically shut off from the outside world where things like unwavering unity and duty are preached to the submissive population on a daily basis. Think North Korea but with a Western slant.
We see this world of all-controlling dictatorship through the eyes of 12-year-old Djata (newcomer Lorenzo Allchurch) who seeks out desperate methods for himself and his mother (Agyness Deyn) when his father is held prisoner for being a traitor to the cause.
There are some very intriguing ideas thrown into the mix, including a fresh allegorical look at Nazism, the corruption of power and warped societal beliefs. And there are some compelling performances, not least Allchurch who impresses in his first feature role.
But it never truly convinces with the world that it portrays and only really skims the surface of those raised ideas rather than digging deep for something substantial, leaving questions unanswered in a way that feels frustrating and unsatisfying, as opposed to intriguingly open-ended.
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