While the president of the United States of America tries to repeat inside the walls of the White House "the greatest victory in the history of mankind" by flaunting a reassuring tone, outside there is a fierce civil war.

The first scenes of truncheons, shootings, violence against citizens; journalists try to document through photo reports.

On the police cars are written: courtesy, professionalism, respect.

It is quickly understood that the situation is not so dramatic only in that context but extends throughout the United States.

Western forces from California and Texas along with the Florida alliance proceed to the capital Washington District of Columbia.

After spending a night in a hotel where it is dangerous even to take the elevator, war reporter Lee Miller with her mentor Sammy, journalist Joe, who are joined by a very young photographer, are headed for the U.S. capital.

On the roads, overrun with crashed, burned, abandoned cars, they proceed with caution: it is difficult even to refuel, the army and civilians are ready to kill, torture and sell diesel fuel at black market prices.

On the way only one locality seems to take no notice of what is happening, and the inhabitants flaunt indifference to the world around them.

A film that narrates, a country with a monstrous gaze, with a violence that is at once chilling and hypnotic: the music succeeds in enhancing the contrasts through the use of melodies in strong alternative to the scenes depicted.

A film of strong social denunciation about cynical, indifferent, disconnected, deranged, vicious politics that gives birth to an alienated, racist, nationalist army and civilians, documented through adrenaline-fueled journalism, which cannot ask questions but only witness and tell the facts.

The only question one must be able to answer correctly is: What kind of American are you?

It touches on horror atmospheres when the reporters encounter a village: Winter Wonderland, set up for the natal past, where among mannequins, puppets and children's toys there are snipers and oxygenated soldiers with colored nail polish on their nails ready to kill and be shot without pause and especially in an indefinite time.

Filmed prior to the events on Capitol Hill, it is released in theaters when the presidential election is still under the slogan "Make America Great Again"; it lucidly and not so far from reality depicts the apocalyptic atmosphere that the world is experiencing, not only because of climate issues of course.

The psychopathology of power, the absence of politics, the delirium of the military and civilians, executions on any street corner, where people wear red glasses to see everything the same color as blood.

Bodies and mass graves, barricades, machine guns, bullets, torture and photo shoots.

Journalists are seen as enemy combatants; the need to bear witness to the horror being experienced is confused between the ethical choice and the unstoppable mechanism of each using the only shot or gunshot available.

The music bears witness to the contradiction and absurdity of the context represented, the impossibility of composing a soundtrack to accompany the unrepresentable, the schizophrenia of the present, the paradox of the obscenity of the real.

The total lack of leaders in the world: the quest for power as an end in itself.

The contemporary scenario is (IN)civil war, the non-negotiable negotiation: death is routine and election campaigns the only realpolitik.

A film of contrasts, absurdity, cruelty, nonsense: a reality at the mercy of the leadership of chaos, where the country that is still considered the emblem of democracy is nothing but the anticipatory representation of the world collapse; a universe of means that works regardless of any end in an instrumental and ahistorical absolute.

22-Mar-2024 by Beatrice