Slavoj Zizek and director Sophie Fiennes give viewers the third installment to their Pervert’s Guide series. This time around, they give us The Pervert’s Guide to Utopias, which shows…Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now? This documentary is basically a clip show, showing fictional dystopias, comparing them with real life dystopias. At first, the film doesn’t seem right. The clips don’t fit the brief – it’s showing the opposite even. Will he finally discuss convential utopias, and/or will he give us the right answer?

Utopias are ideas, and like ideas, professors or filmmakers worth their salt have their own definitions. A professor of mine told her class that satirists don’t exaggerate but show the world for what it really is. Closer to the film’s brief, a filmmaker defines ‘apocalypse’ as present day if one sees it through Indigenous eyes. Similarly, the violence, fictional or otherwise, that Zizek is showing is what it takes to make a utopia. Kurtz destroys Vietnam the same way that Gaza’s in ruins so Occupiers can build on it.

Zizek, during his monologues, reminds the indoctrinated that ‘utopia’ comes from the writings of Sir Thomas More. He also reminds people who didn’t read the text that More’s utopia promises its viewers some slaves. Pervert’s Guide has Fiennes juxtaposing that monologue with clips of classic horror films like White Zombie. Some critics may bristle at Fiennes and Zizek’s interpretation, maybe wondering where the nicer visuals may be. But as imperfect as the approach here is, Zizek’s right, utopias actually suck.