In the year 2026, the population of Metropolis is divided: while the rich enjoy the delights that the city has to offer, the workers must toil on the machines that keep society running.

Freder is the privileged son of the head of the city. When he meets a mysterious young woman, he follows her into the undercity and witnesses an explosion of the machinery and workers being killed. He tells his father of the terrible visions he has had, of men being fed to the fires of industry, but is ignored.

Freder then returns to the undercity where he exchanges places with one of the workers and endures the plight of the common man. He also discovers a spiritual sect in the catacombs of the city, under the guidance of the mysterious woman.

Meanwhile, Rotwang the scientist shows Freder's father his latest creation — the Machine Man — and uses it to infiltrate the mysterious woman's peaceful meetings and inspire the workers to violence against the city fathers.

Made in Germany in 1927, Lang's dystopian creation is a monumental feat, with mammoth sets and a huge cast of extras. From the mole-like dwellings of the workers to the gigantic steel machines and medieval style
of Rotwang's home, the juxtapositions are impressive and create a believable world.

The musical score by Gottfried Huppertz carries this silent film with great drama. The original print shown at the premier was lost, but the film has been meticulously restored and missing scenes reinserted using copies from around the world, with reference to the original script.

Images from this iconic film have thoroughly infiltrated popular culture, such as Queen's music video for "Radio Ga Ga". Terry Gilliam's 1985 sci-fi flick Brazil and Michael Radford's film adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four owe a clear stylistic and thematic debt to Lang's masterpiece.

Metropolis is a film of oppositions: between rich and poor, machine and flesh, peace and violence. But a definite optimism underpins the film's bleakness, most evident in the character of Freder and
his heroic actions.

The final panel of the film reads: "The mediator between head and hands must be the heart." An important lesson in our technology-fixated modern age.

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