Author/Director: Florian Opitz
Protagonists: 
Tim Jackson, Anthony Scaramucci, Markus Kerber, uvm.
Producers: Port au Prince Film & Kultur Produktion
Co-Producer:
Spring Productions
Sender: WDR, WDR/ARTE, BR
World distribution: 
Java Film
German distribution:
Port au Prince Pictures


Why are we so obsessed with economy growth? Why do we continue to press ahead, despite knowing for over 40 years that infinite growth on a finite planet isn’t possible?

Searching for an answer to this great contradiction of our time, the two-time Grimme prize-winner Florian Opitz (“Speed, In Search of Lost Time” and “The Big Sellout”) plunges deep into the world of real and existentcapitalism, joining the dots to reveal previously veiled correlations and laying bare the pathological compulsions of the current system.

Along the way, not only does he encounter Karl Marx – still the most important analyst of capitalism – but SYSTEM ERROR also opens up a whole new perspective on the state of affairs by looking at the system through capitalist eyes. Openly and frankly, European lobbyists and market strategists, American hedge fund managers, Brazilian meat producers and Chinese aircraft manufacturers report their economic success and the blessings of growth to Florian Opitz. Undeterred by all the crises of recent years, these representatives of the system look ahead and explain why the world as we know it would collapse without growth.

It’s this uncovered view which makes the growth-centered system’s absurdity perceptible in both impressive and oppressive fashion. While holding up a mirror to us, SYSTEM ERROR retraces the origin of this compulsion to grow and points out where it will lead humanity. And it makes one thing clear: We need to talk about this before it’s too late!

While holding up a mirror to us, SYSTEM ERROR retraces the origin of this compulsion to grow and points out where it will lead humanity. And it makes one thing clear: We need to talk about this before it’s too late!