Total Trust (2023) User Reviews

Big brother is a reality

[mezzaitaliana-89131 · 8/10 · 22 February 2024]

As the second largest economy in the world, China is a frightening dictatorship.

This documentary follows two lawyers, their wives and a journalist, activists protesting against the authoritarian communist regime.

The surveillance used to control the people is stuff of science fiction. Everything they do is tracked. If the authorities see they are going to a protest they turn up at their homes and bar them from leaving.

Facial recognition is everywhere on the street, and no mask is going to help you.

One of the wives of a journalist was traveling to her husband's trial with her small son. She was stopped at the border for no reason, and allowed to leave only when the trial was over.

A must see. You will never want to buy anything Chinese again.

A story but not a complete one

[paul2001sw-1 · 6/10 · 22 February 2024]

Modern technology can increasingly track every aspect of our lives; and in few places is this put to greater effect than in China, whose state seeks to repress political dissent and encourage socially conformant behaviour. This documentary follows a group of (relatively affluent) Chinese who have found themselves on the wrong side of the government; while also looking more broadly at what how the powers of the state have grown. That rising affluence must lead to demoncracy has long been a totem in the West; it's alarming to see this assumption come under threat. It's an important story, but it doesn't completely work as a film: our dissidents can do little more than wait in fear, while the bigger picture (China's attempt to rate all citizens for their social compliance, or the growth of surveillence even in supposedly free countries) is hinted at but not systematically disected. I felt I could have learned more in 90 minutes.

Must see film

[pk-69826 · 10/10 · 17 December 2023]

Portrait of how a state uses technology to control its citizens. Follows three families and their trials. Footage of the children, animals, wives, parents - all give an intimate feel to the movie. It is an 1984 movie - goes beyond Orwell's wildest predictions.

Also, contains government footage of its propaganda to convince people to trust it. There is a natural feel to the film. You feel you are with these families - suffering with them. With the lockdowns and surveillance we experienced during the COVID times in the US, we can see how this type of control erodes the basic freedom of movement.