Between 1978 and 1995, a series of bombings convulse the United States. The targets of the letter and pipe bombs are managers of major airlines, scientists from various elite universities and technology companies. The trail of attacks finally leads to Ted Kaczynski, a brilliant but reclusive former math professor who, under the pseudonym Unabomber, formulates a radical critique of technological development. Why does a scientist become a terrorist?

The search for an answer leads into the past: from the cybernetics conferences of the 1940s to experiments with LSD in the 1950s and the ideologies of Silicon Valley in the 1960s, a network of connections between military research, psychology, counterculture and the development of the internet unfolds. In his documentary, Lutz Dammbeck traces a disturbing history of ideas in which secret services, artists, visionaries and scientists converge – driven by the question of the total networking of the human being.

Ted Kaczynski was not only a militant opponent of modern technology, but also a brilliant thinker whose manifesto “Industrial Society and Its Future” provides a profound analysis of the dangers of technological progress. Kaczynski's radical rejection of science and networking makes him one of the most controversial figures in recent history.

THE NET has been screened at renowned film festivals around the world, including the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montreal. The film offers a fascinating and at the same time frightening reflection on how ideas about control, freedom and technology shape our society to this day – and why the case of Ted Kaczynski / Unabomber continues to spark debates about the limits of progress.