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MUBI has launched its post-apocalyptic-themed film season, Dystopia. In a year that has seen a deadly pandemic, worldwide uprisings and a prolonged period of social isolation – combined with the already looming threat of environmental collapse – it feels like a fairly on-the-nose choice from the popular film streaming platform. “Dystopia is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanised, fearful lives,” defines Chiara Marañón, MUBI’s director of content in the UK, admitting that the theme resonates with a “particular tragic force” in our current moment. “I think all of us have felt like living in a dystopian nightmare over the past year,” she says. “The pandemic has been the last straw of a long-gestating sense of collapse: political, financial, social, environmental, and moral.”

Now showing, MUBI’s Dystopia season is set to run for most of the summer. All of the films featured imagine the terrifying fictional futures that “may or may not be around the corner,” with each one responding to the theme in its own distinct way. Highlights include Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin, which sees a murderous extraterrestrial stalk the streets of Glasgow, and Kornél Mundruczó’s White God, which tells the story of a sudden mass canine rebellion. Peter Watkin’s notoriously nightmarish mock-documentary Punishment Park will also feature, as will Elio Petri’s campy futurist thriller The 10th Victim.

For Marañón, the season is a “polyphony of chaos” and “an invite into the dark side”. The meticulously curated selection – which has been pulled from all over the world, and all eras – was created to tie in with Michel Franco’s upcoming dystopian thriller, New Order, which is released in cinemas this summer by MUBI, and will be available to stream on MUBI later this year. “We wanted to explore the concept of dystopia further, and reflect on how cinema has allowed us to imagine (im)possible and terrible futures for societies that could have more in common with our present than we had anticipated,” adds Marañón. In other words, much of the season could be viewed as a warning. “These films are full of red flags and in most cases, there is an underlying and desperate cry for change. We were also interested in how they fluctuate between human vulnerability and human power.”

As for Marañón’s personal favourite from the season? “If I had to recommend one film only it would be Born in Flames,” she says. “Considered an iconic feminist classic, it is a no-holds-barred attack on patriarchy that inventively and fiercely addresses society’s exclusion of minorities through an astute science-fiction lens, asking crucial questions not only about gender but also about class, race, and sexuality. It won’t leave viewers indifferent!”

Dystopia is now on MUBI. Sign up for a free 30-day MUBI film subscription below.