It is not hard to believe latex-clad cousins Clemens and Matthias, the founders of Hatari, an Icelandic BDSM techno performance art group, when they say that their clash with capitalism started off as a joke. Traveling from Reykjavik to Tel Aviv for the 2019 Eurovision finals, Hatari became a magnet for the media. They annoyed local officials, met with artists from Palestine, called former UK Prime Minister Theresa May their celebrity crush, and blew puffs of anti-capitalist smoke during interviews. And on top of everything else was their little song about hatred and a European apocalypse. 

Some call them pseudo-fascist cyborgs, while others call them haters in pink eyeshadow or messiahs of the decline of Europe. In Icelandic, the word “hatari” means “hater”, but in their opinion, it doesn’t mean anything. The documentary A Song Called Hate is Anna Hildur’s feature debut. Hildur is an Icelandic music industry veteran and with this film introduces a dazzling new cinema genre: the dry-witted political Eurovision thriller. As children of wealthy, influential parents (including an Icelandic ambassador to the United Kingdom), the boys from Hatari wage a fight against the system that made them. Or is it just a performative flirtation with social activism, a way to entertain, and to annoy the young and old alike?