Norwegian sci-fi drama Dome 16 introduces a futuristic teenage love story that draws upon Greek myths, classic science fiction themes, climate change politics, social division and an increasingly surveillance-heavy state. It's a story that is absolutely relevant to our present day, while reminding viewers of classic, recurrent themes of literature, film, music and art. For love to triumph, there must be countless battles, sacrifices and compromises. And sometimes, love and lovers won't survive unscathed, or at all.
As if young love isn't turbulent enough for teens Anton and Emma, their lives are upended by living within a futuristic dome world constantly overseen by intrusive parents and great, great grandparents.
In Dome 16, by International Emmy-nominated creator Thomas Seeber Torjussen (ZombieLars, Norwegian Cozy), the teenage couple are living out a Romeo and Juliet scenario at some point between 80 and 120 years into the future. An only child (according to the new laws, families must limit their procreation), Anton is born within the Dome community where medical science has prolonged the lives of older humans so that the new norm is for children to live alongside their great, great grandparents. Within the sheltered, conservative surrounds of the Dome community, 16-year-old Anton naturally lusts for rebellion and romance.
Emma (Flo Fegerli). Credit: Tordenfilm / Daniel Voldheim
Outside of the privileged Dome community, 16-year-old Emma exists within a world that is not so different to the ordinary world we know now, in 2024. It is a democratic community, without enormous privilege and wealth, but sufficient and unspectacular. Emma's mother works within the Dome as a part-time chef, which is her opportunity to imagine a more protective, regulated environment for Emma to be raised within. Her wayward daughter could do with some boundaries, in theory.
When curious Anton attempts to sneak a glimpse of a showering woman – any naked woman - within the Dome, having been banned from the pornographic magazines he'd attempted to smuggle in, he accidentally crashes into Emma and her mother's guest rooms, where is he amply rewarded for his efforts with a punch to the face care of Emma. The whole kerfuffle is an embarrassment to his family, and the Dome society more broadly, which results - ultimately - in Anton's self-eviction from the protected community he's always known to the Outside.
Life in the Dome is very different to life outside. Credit: Tordenfilm / Daniel Vodheim
Somewhere between Shakespeare's doomed teenage lovers, and great teen movies like The Outsiders, The Lost Boys, and Stand By Me, Dome 16 revels in layering the realities of young lust, class, privilege, prejudice with broader themes of climate change, dwindling resources, and an urgency around survival and what must be sacrificed individually for the greater good.
Discovered by the Outsiders, Anton becomes one of those potential sacrifices. Rather than an innocent kid, he's viewed as a potential cash cow for the scrabbling, underpaid, underappreciated clans living beyond the Dome. They duly take Anton hostage, tricking him into the underground tunnels where they can conceal his whereabouts from the incessantly imposing drone surveillance that polices their every move.
Anton (Johannes Blumenthal). Credit: Tordenfilm / Daniel Voldheim
And this is where the politics and the personal become supercharged. He might be a pervy peek, and a privileged brat, but Emma also recognises a curiosity, naivety and sweetness to Anton that outweighs his idiocy. It's teenage love - who can explain quite what makes a fellow 16-year-old so intoxicating? Whatever it is, the duo find it in each other. Realising that Anton is her ticket to the sort of financial windfall that would pay for her own desperately needed medication, there's a double-punch reason for Emma to risk her life, and her acceptance within the Outside community, to help Anton to escape the underground and return him to Dome 16 for a reward.
Perhaps then, the story is less Shakespearean and more akin to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in which the lovers must emerge from darkness without breaking strict rules, or face lifelong suffering.
Having attempted to make a run for it, the duo are discovered and divided, sent back to their respective societies to make reparations for their behaviour. Like Romeo and Juliet, Orpheus and Eurydice, Buffy and Spike, how will our two star-crossed lovers find a way to be together in a world that is hellbent on driving them apart?
It sounds dire, certainly, but Dome 16 is vibrantly humorous, recognising the absurdity within many of the unpredictable scenarios Anton and Emma find themselves in. As Seeberg Torjussen upon announcing the series, “Making science fiction is in many ways a war on clichés, and the foremost one is that in the future – people have no sense of humour and everything is bleak and authoritarian. Our vision is not that. In fact, we think humanity 120 years from now is quite capable, lively, and a lot smarter than us in many areas. Although teenagers are still awkward, of course, and puberty is hell.”
Dome 16 is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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Dome 16
