‘Trump has been explicit about revenge’: Asif Kapadia on his new film about the threat to democracy
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The man behind Amy and Senna has turned his attention to ‘techno-authoritarianism’ in the genre-defying 2073. He talks to our journalist – one of the movie’s unlikely stars – about the events that fed his dystopian vision. It was some time in the early 2000s and Asif Kapadia, already a successful film director, a wunderkind whose first feature in 2001, The Warrior, won the Bafta for outstanding British film, was travelling back from New York.
![[Carole Cadwalladr]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2018/03/21/Carole_Cadwalladr,_L.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“There’s a beautiful, gorgeous sunset over Manhattan. I’m in a limo being taken to the airport. And I was taking photos of Manhattan because I was driving over Brooklyn Bridge and it’s just all so cinematic and I became subconsciously aware of the driver watching me in the rear view mirror.
![[Samantha Morton as ‘Ghost’ in Kapadia’s new film, 2073.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/403db268356a273b0d65cf478c3f4fbc6de9a7ea/0_0_4147_2918/master/4147.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“I get to the airport and I’m in the Virgin lounge when my name is called out. And I thought: ‘Have I left a bag or something?’ But then five or six people come: homeland security. And they stop me in the lounge in front of everyone, the only person of colour in there, and empty out my bag, and they say: ‘Someone’s reported you.’.
![[Kapadia promoting his documentary about the singer Amy Winehouse.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/19b6608a39a61eac39d76a7a21d6257ef6cd2351/0_220_3297_1978/master/3297.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“‘You’ve been acting suspicious.’ And it’s like: ‘Who are you? Why are you here? What were you doing?’”. An itinerary of his trip and its purpose proved his credentials and he was eventually allowed to go and boarded his flight. But for nearly a decade afterwards, he found himself on a “watch list”. “I would get stopped and interviewed two times before I got on a plane, pulled out in a room. I started realising that every time I show my boarding pass, instead of a green light going off, a red light goes off, and then you have to be taken somewhere for an interview.”.
![[One of Kapadia’s early successes was the 2010 study of Formula One driver Ayrton Senna.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b05a21a1cbf40b218c69a08936593d2b32de0e29/0_208_5052_3032/master/5052.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
