[15] In a mainly empty room with no windows and faint lighting, the man (referred to by the system with a user numerical designation) is hooked up to a machine via a tube, apparently a set of cables grafted directly on to his head.
[11] Dennis Cabella and Marcello Ercole elaborate that in the future world they aspired to create, "Pathos" is both the name of the technological system and an effective summary of what this uncaring, bureaucratic system delivers: excess in the form of both "installed" prepackaged experiences or feelings at an unnatural speed, and, since there is no allowance for error, suffering, in a way that recalls a past era now distant and forgotten.
Setting aside the conventions of architecture, they imagined a space that would deprive a human being of comfort and ease a cubic and cold environment in which the users of the system move, live and work.
[17] Aesthetically, the filmmakers were inspired by the science fiction films of the 1980s (Blade Runner, Brazil) and 1990s (Cube, The Matrix), the cyberpunk atmosphere of William Gibson's novels, and the graphics of manga by Masamune Shirow and Katsuhiro Otomo.
[17][11][18] Both a scholar and two critics have remarked that what sustains the nameless individual literally locked into a cell is the human imagination, through virtual reality, two of them comparing it to a drug,[6][9] and one emphasising the consumerist aspect of the situation: "Their brain is attached to a chain that provides them with simulacra of life, like in Philip K. Dick's novels, as long as they pay for it.
"[9] While the future is certainly bleak, Andrea Facchin alone sees hope for a return to civilisation in the film, since humanity's capacity for imagination endures.
[19] Fabio Prati joined the company in 2007, an illustrator and decorator with a background working on the historical frescoes of major Genoese buildings, one of the most appreciated artists in his field.
[19] Illusion produces commercials, documentaries and animated films, and has quickly become one of the most important production companies in Liguria, the trio's other artistic and creative collaborations earning awards and mentions on several occasions.
[19][note 1] The idea for Pathos emerged during development of the company's previous effort, Strane Coincidenze (2002), a mid-length feature made up of three intertwined stories, one of which was to have told the story of a person in an imagined future, forced to pay taxes even on his five senses, but the subject was deemed unsuitable for the Hitchcockian atmosphere of the project, and so the idea was shelved until Cabella and Ercole, now joined by Prati, decided to make a short science fiction film dedicated to the subject.
[17] Prati's make-up, which included the design and construction of silicone "implants" over the top of his head and the false brain graft, required a lot of time and attention.
[26] the feature was conceived by Little Terrors short films festival founder Justin McConnell, who directed the narrative frame, and Indiecan Entertainment's Avi Federgreen.
Pathos is called a "must see" by a reviewer at Quiet Earth, noting a perceived "heavy use" of German Expressionism to depict the "bleakness" of the future.
Anthony Marcusa, Carl Fisher, Karina Adelgaard and Richard Sopko each reviewed the short as part of the Canadian anthology.
Marcusa called the film unsettling and disturbing: "It's grotesque and grimy, and stands out the most particularly because it has a simple point brought into stark, powerful relief.
"[16] Fisher calls the film "interesting" and "extremely watchable" because of the "excellent lead" in the "enclosed space", though "its view on consumerism isn't subtle".
[28] Pia Ferrara, reviewing the short as part of the Italian anthology, praises Prati's performance, but she is not fully convinced by the post-apocalyptic scenario itself, or, like Fisher, the thinly-veiled attack on "money" as the cause of the world's subjugation, which she says has been done before.