Furnace Four

"What happened to Six?" he asks. "Don't ask," he's told. It's enough to know that they're doubling up at five, doing instruments and musicians. Strivitz and Porter work at the furnaces, burning. Burning music, in fact, in service to 'the theory'. As they burn music, discussing the consequences of the theory, something starts to happen; the music begins to fight for survival.

This is one of those dystopian fables that affirms the human spirit. It's nowhere near as bleak as Brazil, though there are definitely parallels, it's less specific in its future than Idiocracy, but still well worked together. As Strivitz and Porter, Napoleon Ryan and Lee Ingleby are convincing cogs in an incomprehensible machine.

There's not much to Furnace Four, but it does well. Ali Muriel's script is rich in allusion, there's plenty happening off-screen but there's also much that has happened on other screens. Furnace Four mines rich seams of prior work, but has a spark that sets it apart.