The Great Divide

Moving the story on from the world’s first reaction to the virus to its societal impact, this episode exposes inequalities hidden beneath the umbrella term of ‘we are all in this together’. Told through candid interviews and powerful archive footage, this film charts what happens as lockdowns continue around the planet and the pressures of being trapped indoors begin to be felt.

Among an extraordinary and varied cast are a French photojournalist who, forced to decide between working and homeschooling, heads to the frontline of the pandemic; a family in Kenya suffering the unjust killing of heir son during lockdown; Tanya, a working mother of 6 living in a high rise flat in the Bronx who finds herself in the thick of things in the Black Lives Matter protests; a filmmaker in the economically crippled city of Beirut who has to deal first with Covid-19 and then the devastating port explosion; and Ivan, a celebrated Russian ballet dancer, who faces a new reality when the Bolshoi Ballet closes.

While governments can close shops and restaurants, other events are not so easy to contain, and tensions arise as the virus exposes the inequality in how we all live, until inevitably the streets explode in protest.