Code 46

In the last year, Michael Winterbottom is one of the important directors to have focussed on portraying the near future. In Code 46, structured as a visionary detective story, there are no special effects or studio sets à la Star Wars or Star Trek. Winterbottom uses the deserts of Arabia and the hypermodern skyline of Shanghai as a convincing set for a film in which the cities have become so full that outsiders are kept out at all costs. ‘Outside’, in the desert, live the hordes that have emerged through global warming. In order to live in a city, or to enter one, people need a ‘papelle’, a kind of combined passport, visa and insurance certificate. Bio-technology, cloning and the eradication of memories shape the plot: William (Robbins) is a kind of insurance expert from Seattle who is investigating a company in Shanghai where an employee is supposed to be stealing these papelles. By using an `empathy virus’, he can sense feelings. In this way, William comes into contact with Maria (Morton). While he suspects her, he will not betray her… In an unemphatic way, Code 46 forces the viewer to take another look and to think about the new world that is rapidly taking shape.