About the film

For as long as we can remember we have been told that we will be fairly rewarded, based on our merits and abilities. But the principle of this capitalist social equality runs up against its limits when money and power come into play.

Why doesn't the good in us automatically ensure social equality? How is it that the strong take everything while the striving suffer? And are people inherently corruptible? Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten, who has long focused on social issues, poses these questions to Dutch historian Rutger Bregman and American writer Sarah Chayes. Through stories from places where the local authorities abuse their position, we discover forms of civil revolt against the ruling structures. The struggle for justice also bears the hallmarks of regaining lost confidence in democratic values, the legal system, and humanity as such.