The Matrix

In 1999 the Wachowskis offered us a beautiful idea: the world may turn out to be an illusion, and freedom begins with waking up.

But the four “Matrix” films tell a far more complex and gripping story.

What if knowing the truth does not yet mean being free?

We are used to thinking that we make our own decisions — choosing whom to love, what to believe in, whom to fight and who to become.

But where do the rules by which we make these choices come from? Why do we replay the same scenarios even when we understand perfectly well how they work? Could our rebellion against the system turn out to be part of its mechanism?

In November we will take apart all four “Matrix” films. We will not be watching “science fiction about humans versus machines”. We will watch a film about ourselves and explore how our own thinking, relationships and freedom are built.

We will talk about

• Why we see not so much reality as its familiar description.
• How a system controls us without orders or bans — through expectations, fears and desires.
• Why prophecies can bring about their own fulfilment, and resistance can sustain what it is aimed against.
• Why Neo cannot defeat Smith by force, and what really changes at the end of their confrontation.
• How Trinity and Neo’s love breaks the Architect’s calculations — and why in the fourth film the same love becomes a tool of control.
• And finally: is there a way out of the Matrix if we ourselves take part in creating the systems that limit us?

The talk draws on cybernetics, systems thinking and the philosophy of knowledge. We will question the very idea of a final awakening.

Perhaps freedom begins not where we destroy the system, but where we discover our own part in its existence.

Host

Katya Abdulova — director, producer. Co-founder of AELITA PRODUCTION, curator and producer of the Tochka Cuire festival, director of “IOV: Material”.