One hundred years in the future, humanity is facing the consequences of the environmental degradation they’ve wrought: at the age of 50, every citizen is voluntarily transformed into a tree so that they might supply oxygen to a withering world. Stefan (Tamás Keresztes) is at peace with all of this until his wife Nóra (Zsófia Szamosi) decides to metamorphize before her time. Tearing the social contract to shreds, Stefan abandons the relative safety of the plastic dome encasing Budapest and races across a devastated landscape on a rescue mission to save Nóra.
Fashioning their sci-fi narrative from extensive interviews with botanists and other scientists, Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó employ rotoscoped animation that recalls previous mind-benders like A Scanner Darkly to render a richly detailed dystopia. Recognizing that humanity is teetering at the precipice of a climate cataclysm, White Plastic Sky is speculative fiction that serves as a clarion call for us to consider concerns greater than our own and rethink our relationship with the world. It offers spectacle to behold, and a warning to be heeded.
Grand Competition Feature Film, Berlin 2023
Series Media Partner
Tamás Keresztes, Zsófia Szamosi, Géza Hegedűs D., Judit Schell, István Znamenák
Hungary/Slovakia
2023
Altered States
In Hungarian with English subtitles
At Vancity Theatre
At The Rio
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
József Fülöp, Orsolya Sipos, Juraj Krasnohorsky
Screenwriter
Tibor Bánóczki, Sarolta Szabó
Cinematography
Tibor Bánóczki, Sarolta Szabó
Editor
Judit Czakó
Production Design
Tibor Bánóczki, Sarolta Szabó
Original Music
Christopher White
Directors
Tibor Bánóczki
Sarolta Szabó (1975, Budapest, Hungary) and Tibor Bánóczki (1977, Sárospatak, Hungary) are a Hungarian filmmaker duo.
After graduating at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Sarolta continued her studies at Royal College of Art and Tibor at the National Film and Television School. Here they started their artistic partnership focusing on animated film projects. In 2010 they moved to France where they completed two animated short films Les Conquérants and Leftover which were selected in numerous festivals such as Sundance, and Clermont-Ferrand. Both films were shortlisted to the César Award. Currently they live and work in Hungary. White Plastic Sky is their first animated feature film.
Filmography: White Plastic Sky (2023)
Sarolta Szabó
Sarolta Szabó (1975, Budapest, Hungary) and Tibor Bánóczki (1977, Sárospatak, Hungary) are a Hungarian filmmaker duo.
After graduating at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Sarolta continued her studies at Royal College of Art and Tibor at the National Film and Television School. Here they started their artistic partnership focusing on animated film projects. In 2010 they moved to France where they completed two animated short films Les Conquérants and Leftover which were selected in numerous festivals such as Sundance, and Clermont-Ferrand. Both films were shortlisted to the César Award. Currently they live and work in Hungary. White Plastic Sky is their first animated feature film.
Filmography: White Plastic Sky (2023)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Jackie Brown
Take half a dozen characters who know they're in a fix, and give them half a million dollars to fight over. Tarantino's crime movie (his best) transcends genre in large part because in Pam Grier and Robert Forster it gives us people we truly care about.
Cookie Queens
A documentary about the annual Girl Scouts' cookie sale is probably not high on your list of must-sees, but don't be too sure — this movie is a delight, a rare celebration of girlhood, supportive family relations, and the art of salesmanship.
A Simple Machine
Cutting costs, swapping four wheels for two, Nick is downsizing to pay off his student debt. It's a path which leads to savings he had not anticipated, even if his girlfriend thinks he's losing it (and she may be right). A lean, low budget gem.
Searching for Satyrus
Award-winning filmmaker and photographer Rena Effendi embarks on a quest to track down the very rare Satyrus Effendi, a butterfly discovered by her father in the mountains of Aberbaijain. But what she finds is altogether more personal, and more upsetting.
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World
Sasha Waters' documentary takes us through the life of America's best-selling late twentieth century poet, a private woman who shared her innermost thoughts and made them indispensable.

