Propaganda (2012) on Netflix

Plot summary

A DVD reaches the translator Sabine Program in Seoul, handed over by a couple who say they are North Korean dissidents and want it translated and passed on. Inside is a film narrated by a North Korean scientist whose identity is kept hidden. Drawing on hundreds of television excerpts and archive footage, the narration argues that Western visual and consumption culture amounts to propaganda in its own right, and its subjects include political manipulation, hyper-consumerism and a decline in moral standards. Chapters such as Rewriting History, Complicity and The Cult of Celebrity assemble excesses and globalization, and the argument comes close to the concerns of the Occupy movement: psychological warfare by multinationals, consumers fixated on shopping and a democracy that fails.