HyperNormalisation

HyperNormalisation (2016) is Adam Curtis's feature-length documentary for the BBC, available to watch online on iFILM. Nearly three hours on how the world lost the ability to tell truth from convenient fiction.

Curtis runs a single thread across four decades: bankers, politicians and tech utopians, in his telling, gave up on a messy real world and sold everyone a simpler, managed version instead. He builds the argument out of archive footage, pop music and clips that usually stay buried — from a near-bankrupt New York to Damascus, Tripoli and the back rooms of Russian political theatre. Familiar faces drift past by the dozen: Gaddafi, Reagan, Kissinger, a young Trump.

This is no tidy, fact-by-fact report but an essay film — arguable, hypnotic, cut like one long music track. Some viewers will call it a stretch; others won't be able to look away. Made for anyone who likes a documentary that rattles a point of view rather than confirming it. Stream HyperNormalisation (2016) online on iFILM.