Abhiroop Das
Directed by Roger Gual, ‘The Truthers,’ or ‘Los Creyentes,’ takes place in a small Spanish town where the line between fact and fiction gets blurred beyond recognition. After spending years away from her family, Ruth returns home to the news of her mother’s death, only to realize that her father, Martin, has transformed a lot since. As the cracks in their relationship widen, she comes to know of his most recent, conspiratorial fixations regarding a newly built pharmaceutical company, Certyx.
Martin, a retired soldier, believes that the company is secretly kidnapping kids and using them for drug trials and other medical experiments, without anyone ever realizing. As Ruth frequently clashes with this perspective, the tensions between father and daughter only continue to rise, turning Certyx into an active participant in determining the ebbs and flows of this Spanish psychological drama movie.
Certyx is a Fictional Company Tied to the Themes of the Movie
Certyx is a fictional pharmaceutical company created by writers Carlos Montero and Darío Madrona for the world of ‘The Truthers.’ The company, and more specifically its headquarters, is foundational to the premise of the conspiracy theories, as one of the characters, Martin, believes that Certyx is involved in a kidnapping circuit that targets children. As of writing, the creative team has not mentioned any use of a specific real-life pharmaceutical company, but it is possible that various conspiracy theories surrounding healthcare facilities have been used as a reference point. The COVID-19 pandemic broadly saw a rise in misinformation regarding healthcare practices, which makes Certyx a timely vessel for the narrative purposes of the movie.
While Certyx may not be a real-life company or building, stepping back from its immediate description and looking at the broader thematic parallels points in a different direction. A large point in the movie is Martin’s apprehension regarding the arrival of a big pharmaceutical factory in what is described as a small town. Along with that comes environmental pollution and cultural changes that Martin and his network object to. In real life, similar arguments have been made about a large number of data centers that are increasingly being built in small towns and rural communities.
A report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service noted that several modern data centers, typically built to manage AI or large language model services, are energy-intensive. The report also brought attention to the effect such constructions can have on the local communities’ electricity affordability, water demand, and local infrastructure. We see a distant analog of this dilemma dramatized for ‘The Truthers,’ which is largely filmed in the Spanish autonomous community of Asturias, in Spain. Though Certyx isn’t a real-life company, its integration into the story brings attention to a wider range of topics, be it the rise of baseless conspiracies and myths in recent times, and public concerns about environmental pollution in an era of rapid technological advancements.
Read More: Is The Truthers Based on a True Story?
