At the start, Hyperland does not really tell you where you are, or what kind of a world your characters are inhabiting. But as a viewer, you realise very quickly that a single central element shapes its world: A social networking system on which everyone is watching everyone, all the time, in a non-stop social currency & surveillance scheme, controlling all aspects of life. At first glance, the system - which directly projects into the brains of those connected to it - looks a lot like the things we know from social media: It's all about likes and approval from the people that virtually surround us. But very soon, the film shows how misguided such a system can become once it turns on you: When grave injustice is done to the central character Cee, Hyperland does not pursue the evildoer - instead it goes after her, the innocent victim. The remainder of the film is the pursuit of a remedy: What can Cee do, now that she's been ostracised by a collective of everyday spies. The film asks uncomfortable questions that everyone who has a profile on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter should be able to relate to: What does it mean when we rate and vote and like and dislike, once these systems become as embedded in our world as their makers want them to be? Let's not forget, Mark Zuckerberg just called his corporation Meta. Hyperland is here to show us what might happen, once Facebook really does "go meta".
Review of Hyperland
