Freedom For The Wolf

Bearing a title that was inspired by a quote from the philosopher Isaiah Berlin, who once warned his readers of the deleterious effects of unrestrained capitalism and economic individualism (writing, “Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep”), director Rupert Russell’s feature-length debut should be required viewing for anyone who doubts the recent rise of “illiberal democracy.” The latter expression, which some political scientists and journalists call “empty democracy,” refers to the illusion of freedom that comes from presumably free elections but which masks governments’ troubling tendency (even in advanced, developed nations) to deprive people of civil liberties as well as access to information that might make them question the status quo. Traversing three continents and taking the viewer from the streets of Hong Kong (where a series of “Umbrella Movement” demonstrations against the Chinese government took place in 2014) to the U.S. capital (where hundreds of thousands participated in the Women’s March one day after President Trump’s 2017 inauguration), Freedom for the Wolf maps out a present-day history-in-the-making and reveals how the same spirit of protest can be found in everything from the Arab Spring to #BlackLivesMatter. Agitational cinema at its best, this incendiary documentary is sure to rile even the most passive, apolitical onlookers.