Pathos (film)
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Production company | Illusion Video Production |
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Running time | 17 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
| Budget | effectively nil |
Pathos is a 2009 Italian short science-fiction horror film. It was created by the independent Illusion Video Production company. One of the founders of the company, Fabio Prati, also plays the unnamed protagonist in his first screen role. The short was made in the filmmakers' spare time. Set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic Earth, the film depicts human beings living isolated from one other, slaves of a system of their own invention in control of their senses, thoughts and actions, paying for intense virtual reality "lives" based on a digital copy of human civilisation before its collapse. The short has been compared to the works of Philip K. Dick, and to feature films such as THX-1138, Avalon, Total Recall, and, most frequently, The Matrix.
The short won several awards and honours. Since its original festival run, Pathos has received general theatrical releases through its inclusion in a pair of science-fiction horror anthology films, Corti - Pacchetto Viola (Italy, 2012), and Galaxy of Horrors (Canada, 2017).