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
Akashi
In Mayumi Yoshida’s tender drama, struggling artist Kana journeys to Tokyo to attend her grandmother’s funeral. While there, she reconnects with her childhood love and stumbles across a family secret that prompts her to reconsider her place in the world.
The History of Concrete
After attending a workshop on pitching saccharine Hallmark movies, John Wilson tries to apply all the same best practices to his documentary about concrete. Frequently absurd and endlessly entertaining detours, asides, and digressions ensue.
NAZA
NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.
I Am Not a Witch
Rungano Nyoni's acclaimed debut feature is a visually striking satire about a 9-year-old orphan accused of witchcraft in contemporary Zambia. Screening in the latest African Cinema Now! series, The Witch at the Edge of the Screen.
Queen at Sea
An academic is pitted against her stepfather in a moral crisis over the care of her mother, who lives with dementia. Winner of the Silver Bear Jury Prize and Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance at the 2026 Berlinale.
Image: © Seafaring