New release movie ‘Anno 2020’ viewed as a viable memory stone for that challenging year

Film critics are responding well to the new-release, mystery-drama Anno 2020 with one describing it as “a cinematic time capsule born from an era of uncertainty” and another as “A viable memory stone for that challenging year.”

This epic, Australian-produced movie was produced by Gil Ben-Moshe, of MoneyShot Productions, Sydney, and written and directed by New Zealand-Australian James Morcan.

Billed as a global kaleidoscope of interconnected characters seeking redemption, answers and justice amidst the chaos of 2020, it recently premiered globally on YouTube, Rumble and other streaming platforms.

The streaming release follows sellout red-carpet cinema screenings of the film in three Australian states last year.

The film stars an ensemble of renowned actors from around the world. They include leading Australians Erin Connor (Occupation: Rainfall), Greg Poppleton (The Chronicles of Narnia), Brett Partridge (Water Rats) and Audrey Nitschke (Wolf Like Me), American veterans Kevin Scott Allen (American Primeval), Sheila Ball (Assault On VA-33) and La Rivers (Equal Standard), as well as Chinese-American Crystal J. Huang (Dark Feathers), as well as rising US actor-singer Jessica Castello (Oildale).

For Morcan, who adapted Anno 2020 from his published novel of the same name, the movie represents his directorial debut “capping five long years of toil” to realise his dream.

“Anno 2020 was shot against all odds in 17 countries on four continents in four different languages during the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020-21,” he says.

“This is an indie, or independent, movie in the truest sense of the word. It was self-financed for a budget of only US$6,000, and is a pure indie, I promise you. We say controversial things in it that I assure you could never have been financed by anything within the mainstream movie industry.”

Morcan insists that “99.9% of films advertised as indie movies are non-indies” and dependent on the system.

“So-called ‘indie films’ often have stars or major distributors on board from the get-go, not to mention government finance. They often talk about ‘the difficulties of shooting indies on such a low budget’ then you find out they had millions or even tens of millions of dollars and were backed by a major corporation like Disney!

“The labels ‘indie’ and ‘independent’ were hijacked decades ago as major studios recognized those terms were being perceived as cool and audiences wanted more indies, or at least films sold as such, as they sensed artists had more creative freedoms in such films.

“However, if you go back in time, ‘indie’ originally meant completely independent and outside the ‘system’, as the word implies, and not beholden to anyone or anything, where rebellious, auteur-style directors could literally say whatever they wanted to without checking first with committees or government organizations or financiers or distributors.”

Morcan said as soon as he began writing the Anno 2020 screenplay, long before pre-production, he knew the film would get zero mainstream support and would have to be done as an old-fashioned indie against the odds.

“It was obvious that was going to be near impossible as we also had an epic story around the world with dialogue in different languages. Not to mention navigating shoots around the lockdowns and other Covid restrictions during 2020-21.

“Despite all the hardships filming this beast, never once did my team or I ever stop to ask, ‘Are we allowed to say that?’ or ‘Will we be offending anyone?’ or anything like that. Why? Because we were truly independent and so far outside the system that we might as well have been making the movie on the Moon!

“The end result is a film the likes of Hollywood or major production companies would never consider making.”

As Morcan says, “If you yearn for the return of actual indie movies, then you may like to check it out. It’s very suitable for family viewing.”

The movie has been meticulously subtitled for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HoH) as well as for numerous foreign language audiences.

Anno 2020 is free to view on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nr2h-AMV-c&t=16s

Anno 2020 director James Morcan on stage at a recent cinema screening of the movie in Australia