In his sixth feature film, Janez Bruger explores the desensitization to media violence, the lack of empathy in today's reality and the limits of individual responsibility on social networks.
Lara, a paramedic intern, helps bring a young man named Kristijan to hospital after he was brutally beaten, and his beating live-streamed on Facebook. The video was watched by 20,000 people, none of whom called the police. Although Kristijan is in a coma, Lara starts receiving video clips from his FB profile, showing unidentified persons watching him getting beaten. She reports this to the police, but the video clips nevertheless develop into her worst nightmare.
"I am talking about the empathy that is dying on a very intimate level of each individual. About elementary empathy. /…/ When you feel the need to help another human being /…/. Sometimes an understanding look is enough, sometimes a word, sometimes a talk, sometimes a cry for help. Minimal effort is needed for this kind of empathy, but, in most cases, even that is too much. This is a form of passivity that is buried deep inside us. Mostly, we are not even aware of it, but it eats us up slowly, from within, and thus dehumanizes us." (Janez Burger)