Zen blog post in Russian
https://dzen.ru/a/adzontjLQRRg7wjp
THESE ARE NOT MOVIES — THESE ARE FACTS.
This is the darkest level of cinema, with almost no artistic treatment. It's not "about politics", but about real mechanisms: genocides, wars, propaganda, the dismantling of people and systems.
After watching these films, the illusions disappear that evil is not an exception, it is a by—product of the system. Decisions are made at the top, the consequences are borne at the bottom, and responsibility is blurred, no one feels guilty. A system can be rational, actions can be logical, and the result is a disaster.
1) Citizenfour: The Truth of Snowden (Citizenfour). Man versus the global surveillance system.
Citizenfour is not about surveillance. It's about consent. Do you think you're being "controlled"? No. You're participating voluntarily. You click. You're looking for it. You're writing. You're wearing a device that knows more about you than you do. And you call it convenience. The movie doesn't scare you. He's humiliating. Because it shows a simple thing: no total surveillance is needed if the person himself brings everything on a platter. Edward Snowden is neither a hero nor a traitor here. He's a system bug. An accidental glitch that opened the interface for a second. He showed me how it works. And what has changed? Nothing. You looked. He nodded. Closed the tab. And he went on to leave digital footprints that are collected, sorted, sold, and used. The most cynical? The system doesn't even hide. She's just sure you don't care. And she's right. Because privacy didn't lose when people started following you. And then, when it became convenient for you not to notice it. The scariest thing is not control. The scariest thing is the lack of resistance. No one is running. No one switches off. No one logs out. Because leaving is a loss of convenience. And convenience turned out to be more important than freedom. And then it becomes clear: You're not inside the system. You are the system.
Snowden is not a hero from a Hollywood script — he is a living person who looks into the camera and tells how the NSA is digging under each of us. 90 minutes of pure horror: interceptions, surveillance, power without borders. Laura Poitras' film doesn't let you look away. You see how a scandal is born, how the system crushes one person, and you understand: It's not about the past. It's about now. Your phone, your search, your life is under the gun. If you think that "we know everything", turn on Citizenfour. Watch it to the end. Then try to sleep peacefully.
Citizenfour: The Truth of Snowden (2014)
The official website of the Citizenfour project
YouTube
2) The Lives of Others. Control destroys not only the victim, but also the observer.
The Lives of Others is a wonderful film about how the state “takes care” of people. It's about a system that meddles in someone else's life because it has rotted away for a long time.
When the government gets into every crevice, into every conversation and into every thought, this is no longer an order. It's a carefully packaged fear. Eavesdropping, spying, breaking, burning out a personality — that's their normality. And the most disgusting thing is that such a car always justifies itself with “safety”.
There are no screams here. There are no explosions. There is no "action". There are worse things. The system that's watching. Listening to. He writes it down. And he does it so calmly that it starts to seem like the norm. The scariest thing here is not the system. The scariest thing is the man inside her. Someone who just follows orders at first. Then he gets used to it. Then he stops noticing. And at some point, he no longer understands where control ends and he begins himself. This movie is not scary. He's making it worse. He shows that total control does not require cameras on every corner. Enough fear. And habits of obedience.
Look, if you want to see what a state that hates a person looks like.
The Lives of Others (2006)
YouTube (official trailer)
3) Taxi to the Dark Side. How "exceptions" become the norm.
Taxi to the Dark Side is not a movie, but a verdict of “civilized” power. Human. Usual. Cabbie. They're taking him away. They're interrogating me. They break it. He's dying. Not because he was an enemy. But because it turned out to be convenient. And then the fun begins. No one is to blame. The soldier was following orders. The officer followed the instructions. The system operated within the framework. The perfect crime. Without a criminal. This movie doesn't scream. He points coldly: how violence becomes a procedure, how torture becomes a tool, how a person disappears between the words "safety" and "necessity." The scariest thing is logic, when the goal is control, when the enemy is an abstraction, when fear is fuel. Then the system inevitably comes here to pain, to humiliation, to death. And there is no need to hide anything anymore, because everything is explained easily: "it was necessary."
Taxi to the Dark Side is a mirror that shows how easily a person becomes part of a mechanism that he himself would condemn from the outside. And if after that you want to say, "this is an exception," then you don't understand. An exception is when the system stops. But here she just works.
Look, if you want to see what the state looks like when it finally loses its human appearance.
Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)
YouTube (official trailer)
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My hobbies are history, philosophy, psychology, music, economics, politics, and sociology. I write about this and much more. Professional model. She has performed at international music festivals (vocals, dancing, imitation of vocalists). I am studying at the Academy of Arts - the film and art industry, I am a producer and the owner of a video studio.
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