Writer by Armando Siahaan

By 2055, the world that we live in will be on the brink of extinction. London sleeps under water, Las Vegas is engulfed with sand, rising temperatures set Melbourne ablaze and the mighty Taj Mahal falters. And this is all thanks to you, stupid!

And guess who’s “stupid” here? Us. Yes. It’s you, me, and all the other people who live in today’s world.

This is the message behind Franny Armstrong’s rude awakener, “The Age of Stupid,” a documentary-meets-drama-meets-animation about how mankind’s ignorance and inaction on climate change results in a wave of cataclysmic disasters.

Oscar-winner Pete Postlethwaite plays a weary old man known as the archivist. The last person on earth, he lives in Scandinavia, in a futuristic tower that stores the remains of the devastated planet’s past.

Using his touch-screen archival system, he flips through digital material comprised of real footage, media reports and interviews with experts from the past, asking the question: “Why didn’t we save ourselves when we had the chance?”

The 89-minute film is intelligent and provocative. It follows six real stories, which are cleverly and subtly intertwined.

Alvine DuVernay lives in New Orleans. When Hurricane Katrina struck his city, he rescued more than 100 people using his own boat. A hero in his city, DuVernay worked for oil company Shell and finds himself unapologetic about working for a company that vastly despoils the environment.

Nigerian woman Lafeya Malemi is on the receiving end of the eco-catastrophe caused by Shell’s drilling operation.

The presence of the gigantic corporation in her country illustrates the “resource curse” — where a country becomes impoverished because its wealth of natural resources draw in outsiders who exploit the environment.

Striving to become a medical student, Lafeya fishes in an oil-polluted river to earn the money she needs for university. Ironically, she yearns to become rich enough to live an American life.

Young Iraqis Jamila and Adnan Bayyoud, who moved to Jordan as war refugees, saw their father killed during the US invasion of their country. Now, they sell used shoes from the US for a living, but if the angry kids see an American, they say they’ll kill him or her. The movie argues that the reason for the war was oil.

Fernand Pareau is an 82-year-old mountain guide who laments how global warming has led to the unprecedented melting of the glaciers, forcing the addition of longer ladders for climbers to reach the receding icy surface.

Then there’s the dilemma of Jeh Wadia, a vivacious Indian tycoon, who dreams of establishing a low-budget airline to make air travel accessible for all. The Mumbai businessman believes his ambition would eventually eliminate poverty in India.

But Jeh’s goal is contested by environmental activist Piers Guy, who argues that air travel is a crucial cause of global warming. Guy is a wind-farm developer who tries to pressure his neighbors to build eco-friendly turbines, but is vehemently resisted by residents who fear they would ruin their views and reduce property values.

Each story is compelling and moving in itself. The film stimulates debate about key environmental issues, including consumerism, carbon emission and global warming, and oil as the cause of many conflicts globally.

Armstrong’s film is strong as it conveys a myriad of information, presented in a mosaic of news reporting, clips of graphs and statistics, interviews with experts and satirical-yet-educational animated segments – making it an unusually edgy documentary that has the power to make people rethink their often casual approach the issue.

The film can be heavy going at times, with the inundation of information, and this is somewhat exacerbated by the lack of a coherent plot line.

However, entertaining the audience is not really the point of the film. “The Age of Stupid” is a wake-up call that jolts you into consciousness with the alarming truth that doomsday is near, unless you act. Now.
Free screening

Saturday, Oct. 17, 

5:30 p.m.

Taman Proklamasi

Jl. Proklamasi No. 1

Central Jakarta