Flatland The Movie
I found out about this movie in a most unusual way as part of a Digital Signal Processing course. Based on the eponymous book Flatland, the film is a satire on the United States society in the 2000s. The protagonist "A square" is an attorney who lives in a 2 dimensional planar world. The elites in his world are bigoted against chromatists or those citizens who have color in their sides, a clever allusion to the race problem that still has not gone away in the country.
But the main theme of the movie is the limited worldview of all people who do not easily accept the perspectives of others. At different instances, characters of certain dimension refuse to accept the possibility that an additional dimension could possibly exist and have its own denizens. So, a point regards himself as an omniscient god like emperor who perceives any communication as a thought emanating from himself. Lineland king tries to kill A square when he tries to elucidate the concept of a planar geometrical figure. A square has been brought up to believe that a circle represents divinity and assumes that all spheres are worthy of worship. The spherical senators consider the notion of a fourth dimension nonsensical.
Further, the status of women is satirized. They are depicted in Flatland as inherently too emotional, even dangerous, with a screechy voice. They are required by law to emit a peace cry among strangers to let them know they are benign! To redeem the misogyny of the world somewhat, wife of A square turns out to be a badass who has a war cry of her own!
I found out about this movie in a most unusual way as part of a Digital Signal Processing course. Based on the eponymous book Flatland, the film is a satire on the United States society in the 2000s. The protagonist "A square" is an attorney who lives in a 2 dimensional planar world. The elites in his world are bigoted against chromatists or those citizens who have color in their sides, a clever allusion to the race problem that still has not gone away in the country.
But the main theme of the movie is the limited worldview of all people who do not easily accept the perspectives of others. At different instances, characters of certain dimension refuse to accept the possibility that an additional dimension could possibly exist and have its own denizens. So, a point regards himself as an omniscient god like emperor who perceives any communication as a thought emanating from himself. Lineland king tries to kill A square when he tries to elucidate the concept of a planar geometrical figure. A square has been brought up to believe that a circle represents divinity and assumes that all spheres are worthy of worship. The spherical senators consider the notion of a fourth dimension nonsensical.
Further, the status of women is satirized. They are depicted in Flatland as inherently too emotional, even dangerous, with a screechy voice. They are required by law to emit a peace cry among strangers to let them know they are benign! To redeem the misogyny of the world somewhat, wife of A square turns out to be a badass who has a war cry of her own!
