If history has taught the human race one thing (apart from never start a land war in Asia and don’t trust a man with a moustache) it’s that eliminating vast swathes of the human race is a bad idea.
It’s like squeezing spots. You start just planning to spend a quick five minutes bumping off a few of your more irksome political opponents and the next thing you know you’re standing on a balcony with angry facial hair advocating the slaughter of thousands of innocent people.
It’s called genocide and traditionally, modern liberal democracies don’t like it. But what would happen if they started latching on to state murder as a means of social engineering?
This is the starting point for Danish film, How to Get Rid of Others, a black comedy that opens this year’s Northern Lights Film Festival in Gateshead, celebrating the best cinema from northern Europe. It tells the unlikely (we hope) story of a futuristic Denmark where tax evaders and dole scroungers are rounded up and executed.
Other screenings include Lars Von Trier’s latest outing The Boss of it All and the Oscar-nominated After the Wedding.
www.nlff.co.uk
