2019/TV

The Believers are but Brothers TV

Commissioned by the The Space for BBC.

We live in a time where old orders are collapsing.

From the post-colonial nation states of the Middle East, to the EU and the American election.

Through it all, tech savvy and bloodthirsty groups like ISIS run through European drawn border lines.

Amidst this, a generation of young men, find themselves burning with resentment.

This crisis of masculinity leads them on a journey into an online world of fantasy, violence and reality.

Show info

Through the screens on our phones and in our homes, and the apps we use every day, Javaad Alipoor dives deep into this digital realm. He explores this blurry and complex world via an electronic maze of meme culture, 4chan, the alt-right and ISIS. Along the way he uncovers a toxic mix of the harmlessly bizarre and the horrific; gaming and chatrooms, infamous ads and ISIS propaganda, brutal misogyny and weird fantasy. Seemingly cut off from real world values and boosted by anonymity, anything can be said or done. But it all has devastating real world consequences.

Amongst the propaganda, fantasies and hi-def brutality these online spaces, Alipoor encountered young men searching for meaning. An ISIS recruiter, two British recruits and an Alt Right “white boy” from California. Alipoor asks, what makes some young men want to take the ultimate step through the screen? In twists only possible through a screen, their lives intertwine online with world shaking consequence. The Believers are but Brothers explores the smoke and mirrors the world of online extremism, anonymity and hate speech, through multi-media performance.

In 2019, The Believers are but Brothers stage production was adapted for television commissioned by the BBC and The Space following a broadcast on BBC4 on the 24 March 2019.

The TV version is no longer available to watch, however you can watch the full theatre show of The Believers are but Brothers on Digital Theatre +.