By Neeraj Nanda
MELBOURNE, 2 August 2020: After watching the 10 episodes of ‘Narcos Mexico’ (session one), seeing ‘The Hater’ is like shifting from one century to another. The 2 hours 15 minutes Polish drama is a take on the misinformation (called infodemic by the WHO) surge and its implications on everything including politics. The rather buzzy plot of the movie is smooth with its exposure to social media blues.
Tomasz Giemza (Maciej Musialowski) starts working for Best Buzz PR after getting kicked out of a law course and soon uses social media to defame progressive politician Pawel Rudnicki. The movie charts his progress in this direction amidst the snub from his love girl (Agata Kulesza), daughter of the leftist couple (Zofia (Danuta Stenka), and Robert (Jacek Koman) who financed his law education.
Tomek’s step by step web actions including through a video game encourages a far-right enthusiast to counter Oawel Rudnicki’s politics as he campaigns for an election. The use of social media laced with political and emotional fear of progressive causes reflects today’s realpolitik. The Polish background can easily be substituted with another country.
The movie’s violent conclusion reminds one of a similar real-life incident in Warsaw. But the beauty of the movie is its reflection of today’s social media infested misinformation engulfing the world.
Directed by Jan Kamosa and written by Mateusz Pacewicz with Maciej Musiałowski as Tomasz Giemza, the movie rightly points at how hate through social media has become the defining narrative of the present times.
