TOTAL TRUST - Mark Reviews Movies

Total Trust, Film Movement

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 7, 2023

It's bad enough that some private companies can and do keep tabs of our every word and movement, in both the digital realm and the real world, and Total Trust sees that taken to an extreme—as well as a next likely step for the rest of the world. It revolves around the Chinese government's efforts to observe, track, and even judge the words and actions of its citizens by way of technology that already exists. It's probably in front of your face or within an arm's length right now.

The story of director Jialing Zhang's documentary follows two families and a journalist, who bravely speak out against assorted injustices within their homeland and show us the government-organized repercussions of daring to do so. Some of that is easy to see, such as the way the government arrests human rights lawyers—such as the two husbands/fathers of the families here—and keeps them detained without any clear judicial process in front of them, as well as subjecting them to torture.

Most of it, though, is insidiously in plain view but framed as being for the targets' benefit. Take the case of Wunzu Li, Quanzhang Wang, and their son. During filming, Wang had recently been released from prison—arrested as part of a crackdown on a few hundred attorneys who were accused of subverting the government by petitioning it on behalf of ordinary citizens who felt wronged by the system's actions. Things seem normal, but then, some people show up outside of their apartment, insist that they can't leave "for their own safety," and take shifts blocking the hallway outside the family's door.

This team is made up of local volunteers, looking to earn points on a so-called "social credit score." Good behavior is rewarded, and perceived "bad" activity loses someone points. Some of that "bad" behavior includes petitioning the government, rightly or wrongly, and by the system's math, one has to perform 300 hours of community service just to pay off the debt of a single petition.

Technology, obviously, makes it easier to track all of this, whether it be by way of cameras, which pop up outside the apartment of journalist Sophia Xueqin Huang when she writes a story about the arrests, or "convenient" payment apps on people's cellphones. Zijuan Chen, whose husband is still in prison during the film and who protests against his detention, is denied the ability to buy food or even travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, because her check-in app is manipulated to suggest either a positive test result or contact with someone who has had one.

If this looks like some dystopian future, it's probably best to relinquish such beliefs. Total Trust is showing us the present and recent past of the Chinese government's efforts to control its population, and the frightening thing is that those efforts are working just as the government wants them to. As for the rest of the world, it's probably only a matter of time.

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