Mario Sixtus tells of a future in which social media has completely taken over. The actions of every individual are seen by the public and fed into a rating system, and those who win the favour of the masses are rewarded with privileges. Sixtus, however, shares the other, more-fascinating side with us: those who crash and burn within this system, the failures living outside the social masses. At the same time, in Hyperland he confronts topics that go hand in hand with the digitalised world: fake news, fake facts, hate campaigns on the internet. Here, everything is set in motion by a rape for which the perpetrator shifts the blame onto the victim. The science fiction then turns into a thriller, because Cee, the main character, is willing to defend herself with criminal energy if necessary.

Hyperland, a TV movie produced for the ZDF series Dystopias, shoulders several popular science fiction themes. The film tells of a life "in the stream", which means that all people have two probes on their heads that connect them online with the rest of the world. Privacy is a thing of the past, as is the mobile phone as a means of communication. What you experience is now available to the public directly from the brain – you can even project it onto the walls of a house as you pass by. The general public, in turn, judges what it sees or hears and rates it with points. Everyone's life is a social-media wallpaper, and success or failure lies in the approval or rejection with which it is met. The rating system here is called "Karma Count": the more points you have, the more privileges you receive. And vice versa: too few points could result in the door to the shopping centre remaining closed – and if you lose all your points, you become invisible, you become a "Zero". As such, you are an outcast of the digitalised world, and only permitted to return to the omnipresent network after a protracted resocialisation processes.
The rating concept is not particularly utopian. The British TV series Black Mirror has been dealing with similar topics since 2011, while in areas of China it is already becoming a reality. So the world of Cee, the young main character of Hyperland, could well be the very near future. She is in good spirits at first, long enough for the viewer to come to understand the rules of the reality. Then Cee goes to a trendy party in some empty cellars somewhere. The film strives for futuristic splendour; the scenery is defined by melting colours, shapes, and digital alienation, in the middle of which dancers move as if in a trance. At this party, Cee is approached by Marvin and, after a short flirtation, is led into a lockable adjoining room – where she is raped. He pulls a helmet over her head that blocks her connection to the stream, so even if the knocked-out Cee wakes up there will be no witnesses.
But Marvin is mistaken in this regard. As a side narrative of the story reveals, Cee is the daughter of the scientist who invented the constant connection to the net. For his daughter, however, he made an emergency exit: a kind of headset that allows her to withdraw from the net. She is also able to use it to undermine Marvin's network blocker. A complicated situation, to say the least, but one thing becomes clear: Cee can make at least parts of her rape visible to the public. She then angrily demands that Marvin be punished. The images, however, are contradictory. He refers to context, claiming that the sex was consensual – the violence was not only pre-agreed, but its harshness was expressly demanded by Cee. At this point, Hyperland turns to another facet of social media: the emergence, proliferation, and popularisation of fake news.
Marvin begins a smear campaign against Cee, who soon loses the favour of the public as well as all her karma points. The surprise, however, is that Cee is not the only "Zero" around; there proves to be an unexpectedly large amount of them, living with their leader Albert in an empty former library. The public pressure now becomes less, which allows the film room to turn to the past. Several flashbacks tell of Cee's childhood, of her father's invention, of his unexplained disappearance, and of how Cee once almost drove a boy to suicide. Gradually, larger connections become visible: Albert was the young boy, and for years he was been obsessed with the idea of taking revenge on Cee. And now he has his chance – but he does not take it, because Cee, contrary to his expectations, is a woman who has learned from her mistakes. She is tolerant and respects her fellow human beings – in fact, Albert begins to like her.
None of which helps get Cee any further in her fight for justice. Even Cassandra, a shady net criminal to whom she eventually turns, cannot help her. Marvin, rich and cunning, has the masses on his side. This is where the movie changes into a thriller, with intrigues that are as exciting as they are sophisticated. Secrets get revealed, the visuals always displaying stylistic intentions. In the end, Cee might not get justice, but she does at least get analogous satisfaction – she gives Marvin a proper beating. It is now clear to her that she cannot expect more from the beautiful digital world, let alone any interest in the truth. And so Hyperland steers towards a resolutely dystopian outcome – something like that has to be appreciated, even if a "happy ending" with Albert would have been possible.

Doris Kuhn (17.01.2022)

Reviews and Commentary:

"There comes a point when the audience of the film has to shout at the screen or monitor with clenched fists: 'Stop! This cannot be happening!' Righteous indignation boils over when a dreary housewife bitterly denigrates the heroine Cee, who by this point has already endured a sexual assault, a smear campaign, and total social declassification." (Faz.net)

"Of course, the story is to be understood as an extrapolation of a society increasingly fixated on public recognition. Something that is already to be recognised: more and more people now pay attention – not only privately, but also for their profession – to looking good on social media, to collecting likes, to receiving positive reviews. Nowadays, a shitstorm can already destroy careers and even psyches. In Hyperland, that is the reality for everyone. The drama unfolds because evaluations can be manipulated. Along with the people." (Zeit Online)

"Apart from the grandiose cool design of the world Mario Sixtus presents in Hyperland, the cinematography is also extremely hip, with characters moving as if in a science fiction choreography. The viewers finds themselves immersed deeper and deeper into this hyper-world, with its extrapolations of today's Web 2.0 or 3.0 or whatever. " (Kino-zeit.de)

Production Country

Germany (DE)

Production Period

2020/2021

Production Year

2021

color

color

Duration

Feature-Length Film (61+ Min.)

Type

Feature Film

Genre

Thriller, Science Fiction, Drama

Topic

Violence, Psychology, Digitalisation / Internet, Equal Rights / Emancipation

Available Media

DCP, Blu-ray Disc, DVD

Original Version

German (de)

DCP

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic (ar), Chinese (zh), Russian (ru), Czech (cs), Romanian (ro)

Note on the Format

DCP sind verschlüsselt
rumänische UT nur auf 1 DCP (pix300-FinalKopie2)

Blu-ray Disc

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic (ar), Chinese (zh), Russian (ru), Czech (cs)

DVD

Subtitles

German (full), German (partly), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic (ar), Chinese (zh), Russian (ru), Czech (cs)

Note on the Format

DVD-Auswertung erfolgt ab 01.06.2022