The War of the Worlds - The Next Century

28th December 1999 in an unnamed Western country. The Martians landed a few days ago, the population has already hastily surrendered and all the institutions are already in their service. As the popular presenter of the SBB TV station and its news programme "Independent News", Iron Idem reads the daily announcements of friendship and cooperation and calls upon viewers to donate blood for the aliens. But Idem is unhappy and voices his discontentment to the editor-in-chief. One morning, a riot squat breaks into his apartment in a brutal manner. His wife is kidnapped and he himself is stigmatised with a "friendship badge", a metallic badge with a running figure on it that identifies him as a friend of the Martians. Idem loses his apartment and is forced to live in an emergency shelter, while all attempts to find his wife fail. Colleagues and officials humiliate him, the invaders and their henchman harass him wherever he goes. Due to his popularity though, Idem is still allowed to appear on television. During a live concert in honour of the Martians he calls for resistance against them. The viewers are now, however, also in line with public opinion and no longer capable of understanding what he's trying to say. The rebel has now become an outsider for good and is arrested and sentenced to death. But when Idem watches his own shooting on one of the omnipresent screens, he's not even sure whether it really took place. (Berlinale)