Il Verosimile

Last week I wrote a post about a film in which human beings let anything be done to them. Some people find the film unrealistic, and I'll avoid getting into the argument over whether a piece of cinema has to be realistic to be any good, not least because the men of today surely wouldn't really be so dull-witted as to accept just anything.

So think about this film.

They create a particularly aggressive influenza virus in a Chinese laboratory. Using the danger as an excuse, they force a good part of the population into house arrest. You can go out to walk the dog and buy basic necessities, but nothing that isn't absolutely necessary. Obviously there is someone who decides what is necessary and what isn't. They force the population to walk around with filthy rags on their faces. Plenty of people see their businesses fail, perhaps inherited from their parents, and they do nothing. Some indoctrinated zealot sings from the balcony and reports the neighbour for an illicit barbecue. Their dear elderly relatives rot in care homes and can't even have the comfort of their families, no visits, and when someone dies, because people die all the same, you can't even attend the funeral. The great solution is "social distancing", that is, they train the flocks to "socialise" only through a video. Then the experimental magic potion is the great final solution, and "the good man" has several doses injected without asking himself whether it really works, whether it is necessary and what the side effects might be. Anyone who refuses is discriminated against and can neither go to work nor afford any socialising with others. He has no pass and so, quite rightly, no rights. One of the most acclaimed priests of this nightmare goes so far as to say that they should "rot like rats", addressing the few holdouts. The prime minister lies shamelessly on TV and nobody, not even years later, asks him to account for it. After a few years it is clear that there were a few adverse effects after all, but heaven forbid you talk about them. There are people who never recovered, who notice strange heart attacks, but it's just bad luck, obviously.

What do you think? Fairly realistic film?

m.m.