The Shock Doctrine

Mat Whitecross and Michael Winterbottom's 2009 documentary adapts Naomi Klein's book of the same name. Klein's thesis is that free market policies are imposed at a speed societies cannot resist precisely when they are in shock after a war, a coup, a natural disaster or an economic collapse. The film runs that argument through historical cases: the 1973 coup in Chile, Britain after the Falklands, post-Soviet privatisation in Russia and the invasion of Iraq. Milton Friedman and the Chicago school are presented as the intellectual source at the centre of it. The documentary is built on archive footage and Klein's own narration, gives no space to opposing views and does not pretend otherwise. Parts of the argument have been contested by economists. Who it's for: viewers who follow documentaries on political economy and recent history. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a balanced debate; the film is the defence of a single thesis.