Synopsis

How real is our individual perceived reality and to what relevance does this question have within the make-up of our collective social structures? A set of agreed upon arrangements underpin our modern economies and societies by the mechanism of standardization. What role do such standards play in our communal life? There simply exists no standard for truth. During the Middle Ages western societies operated under the rule of prohibition and discipline, determined and decreed by the order of Christian Law. The contemporary performance based society is determined by the 'YES'.- a mandated positivity diktat. Previous criminals and felons made way for the depressed and failures. Prisons and dungeons have morphed into spaces of commerce and consumption, shopping malls and fitness studios...* This film accompanies the 'homeless philosopher' and 'professed lunatic' Fritz Joachim Rudert (Alias Leonardell) on his mission to release the mind-controlled masses from their mania. And indeed it may appear that 'crazy' Fritz and his confederates from the German anti-phsychiatry movement "BPE" (Bundesverband gegen Psychiatrische Gewalt) achieved a political movement. The inquires and work by renowned researchers: Allen Frances, Elisabeth Loftus, Joscha Bach and Gerhard Roth exemplify the economical interests, scientific ambitions and political coherences in and around the world of the human consciousness. Anomalie is an essayistic film about the systemic and individual 'abnormalities' of the so-called Western World. The result is a cinematic journey that provides an inventory of many fragmented and discursive narratives towards one singular conclusion: "Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems" Epictetus.