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by Alan Jones

This stunning cyber-fantasy is rich in design and innovative ideas, and intellectually engages the mind while always remaining enjoyable on the purest pulp levels. Superstar video game inventor Christopher Lambert creates a new game called Nirvana, then realises his virtual-reality hero (Italian matinée idol Diego Abatantuono) has a human consciousness. How he tries to erase the game before its mass-market Christmas release, which would condemn Abantantuono to a never-ending existence, pits Lambert against a ruthless multi-national corporation and takes him through the seedy underworlds of a future metropolis known as the Northern Agglomerate. Directed by Gabriele Salvatores (Mediterraneo) with one eye on meaningful psychodrama and the other on giving his existential Blade Runner a unique look, this epic plea for Utopian harmony is one of the best science-fiction films ever made. Yet few people outside Italy have seen it.