InScience advises: Invisible Demons
The documentary Invisible Demons examines the negative effects of economic growth in India, and offers us a terrifying look at our future using a lot of visual horror. The film is now screening in LUX.
The director of this documentary, Rahul Jain, was born in 1991. In the same year, his home country India opened its economy to the free market. Some thirty years later, New Delhi is consistently high on the lists of the most polluted cities in the world. The temperature here can rise to 50 degrees Celsius, visibility is often limited to only a few meters due to smog and the rivers are hidden under thick yellow foam due to chemical pollution.
The relationship between economic growth and pollution in India is one of the central topics of this documentary. India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but who actually benefits from this growth? What is special about this film is that the filmmaker starts his search in his own life, which quickly turns out to be linked to larger themes such as the consequences of globalization, capitalism and exploitation, and the growing inequality worldwide between rich and poor. Another special feature is the director’s choice not to let experts speak, but rather the population itself – such as the farmers and drivers of rickshaws and trucks. The impressive images and important message make this a documentary that you will not soon forget.