How to Disappear

Battlefield is a popular first-person shooter game, in which the player is a soldier at war. Although the fighting scenarios are visually realistic, there's a phenomenon common to every war that's noticeably absent, because it’s impossible to desert. In Battlefield, an invisible overseer executes anyone attempting to escape.

Made entirely in Battlefield, and taking the game as its case in point, How to Disappear explores the handling of desertion throughout history. Soldiers are drilled and bombarded with nationalist propaganda to minimize the chance of desertion. In games like Battlefield, there's no room for moral doubt, no gray area between good and evil. The players cannot throw down their weapons.

Players of a war game experience war as a consumer product. What impact does this have on the way they think about war? Is escape still possible? Artist collective Total Refusal conducts a critical analysis of computer games in this thought-provoking film essay.