Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics is a film that urgently aims to unsettle and shock its audience, and in this mission, it succeeds. While it may lose some momentum in the latter part, the impact of plastic on our bodies is a wake-up call that cannot be ignored.

We are surrounded by plastic, from skyscrapers and grocery stores to furniture and elements of the clothes we wear. But what is the impact of a material that never decomposes? Author and science journalist Ziya Tong seeks to understand microplastics and how, from our brain tissue to our food, they have seeped into the fabric of our lives and every stratum of our complex ecology.

We have all seen the damage that plastic has been doing to the environment and even to animals, birds and fish filled with plastics that almost certainly caused their deaths. Yet, we never really think of the damage that all of this plastic is doing to our bodies. In Plastic People, it is wrong, very, very wrong. In fact, you couldn’t have been more incorrect if you tried due to the forgotten existence of microplastics. These particles make their way into our bodies and assist in causing heart disease and cancer. Once it’s in there, there is no getting it out, and it is one jolt of a wake-up for audiences, making the issue personal and immediate.

Despite this, though, Plastic People falls foul of never being able to break out of being formulaic. It becomes a standard call-to-action documentary that aims to shock you and then throw all of its anger at the corporations who have allowed this to happen to us, making us unwanted test subjects. It is a film that loses steam towards the end as it goes towards the corporations and then how authorities can force a reduction in the production of plastics and increase that 10% that is recyclable to a far greater number.

Luckily, the actual data and presentation of what happens to our bodies in the first half of Plastic People is what successfully grabs you by the collar to give you a good rattle. Information like finding out those who worked with nylon most likely have micro pieces of the material living in the cells of their lungs makes it as disconcerting as it could possibly get. Directors Ben Addelman and Ziya Tong aim for a bit of shock value with their documentary to stir audiences to be more aware of the situation we have been sleepwalking our way into as a species.

The message in Plastic People is essential for audiences, but with a mixture of issues within the documentary, it doesn’t make its way to the surface to be as powerful and empathic as it really needs to be. We are sleepwalking into a nightmare for our bodies. While this is highlighted, by diverting off into other tangents, the film loses its power.

★★★

For more coverage of Sheffield Doc Fest 2024, please check out the reviews below.

Black Snow

Britain’s Forgotten Prisoners

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