For many, the idea of “dystopian future” might conjure images of a time so far ahead that it’s difficult to imagine ever arriving there. As viewers of science fiction films that attempt to portray these visions, we become mere passengers along for the ride. Whether or not we truly believe in the forthcoming future reality represented on screen, we might share similar feelings of wonderment about the unknown and uncharted, so far from our grasp. One might also wonder: how do science fiction writers decide their timelines, and how do our imaginations effectively fall within them?

The premise of Kamikaze ’89, directed by Wolf Gremm and released in 1982, directly confronts this question – but soon discards such curiosity for a set of other perplexities. It depicts a dystopian vision of the year 1989, just seven years ahead of its release, on the frenzied streets of West Germany. In a surprising turn of events, its future setting just happened to coincide with the year the Berlin Wall fell, when there ceased to be a distinction between West and East Germany. At the time of its release, German cinema had been attempting to re-imagine and reconfigure itself, refusing to conform to many cinematic conventions of what it deemed “old cinema” – a useless, dead entity. The result was an ambitious era of filmmaking that inspired the production of an eclectic array of boundary-bending avant garde films. Kamikaze ’89 owes its style, which certainly has no shortage of peculiarities and idiosyncrasies, to this creative time.

Starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a filmmaker tied to the emergence of this experimental time in Germany, Kamikaze ’89 centers around Fassbinder’s character, a detective searching for the answer to a convoluted conspiracy. What will surely captivate viewers the most about Kamikaze ’89 are its aesthetic and sonic styles: flashing neon lights that envelop characters as they embark on unexpected adventures; wardrobe choices almost too wild to be taken seriously (Fassbinder remains in the same leopard-print suit throughout the entirety of the film); and Tangerine Dream’s proto-techno soundscape that hovers over the film’s cyberpunk tones. Sure to be a playfully turbulent ride, Kamikaze ’89 represents a fantastical speculation of the world as it (maybe) could have been, becoming a relic of its own timeline.

Kamikaze ’89
1982
dir. Wolf Gremm
106 min.

Screens 8/25 through 9/4 at the Museum of Fine Arts
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