Utopia

A man returns home and finds a country where citizens police one another with their phones, and where prison can look freer than the street.

Jack comes back to Australia after more than a decade away. His brother meets him at the airport, and the country is not the one he left. People record one another for small offences and upload them to a government app. Swearing is fined. Alcohol is banned. Cameras sit in homes and cars. The bathroom is the private room.

Written and directed by Kosta Nikas, the 14-minute short was shot in Sydney, including a beach scene at Yarra Bay, La Perouse. It is a satire with a bright surface and a dark finish. Nikas has said he wanted to answer the reach of the phone, and the way a city can turn surveillance and fines into ordinary life.

Utopia won the jury prize for best international narrative short at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival and best short film (comedy) at Toronto Shorts. It was nominated for an Orpheus award at the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, screened at the Athens International Film Festival, and was invited to Utopiales. Omeleto premiered it online in March 2021. A feature screenplay inspired by that world is in development.

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