Watching you – Die Welt von Palantir und Alex Karp

In the organizer's words:

Screenings:

• Thu, June 6, 2024 - Wed, June 12, 2024 at 5:00 p.m.
• Thu, June 13, 2024 - Thu, June 13, 2024 at 6:45 pm
• Sat, June 15, 2024 - Tue, June 18, 2024 at 6:45 pm

• DE 2023
• 98 min
• Director: Klaus Stern
• FSK: not specified

The film is an investigative approach to one of Silicon Valley's most mysterious CEOs, who always seems to withdraw when too many eyes are on him.

With his company Palantir Technologies, US entrepreneur Alex Karp has created the successful yet controversial data analysis software "Gotham". On the one hand, it enables states to comprehensively monitor their citizens. On the other hand, it supports intelligence services, the military and police authorities, including in Germany, with information that can be used to solve crimes - or for targeted killings. Palantir is currently an important partner of Ukraine in the defense war against Russia.

The company is as secretive as it is mysterious. It became big with its work for the CIA and NSA. It is worth over 50 billion US dollars on the stock exchange. Osama Bin Laden is said to have been hunted down with its help. One of its founders, Peter Thiel, is a right-wing libertarian with rather bizarre views who openly supported Trump. The other, Alex Karp, describes himself as a neo-Marxist and leftist and is proud of the fact that his parents were hippies. Today, he is CEO of the largest commercial surveillance company in the world. He admits dryly: "Our product can be used to kill people."