Western society is becoming ever more focused on numbers, profits and charted consumption. Where all this might lead us is the subject of a new satirical black fable by Greek director Costa-Gavras, who worked from the novel ‘The ax’ by American crime writer Donald E. Westlake. What originally was a mystery novel about ‘the American dream gone wrong’ has become a highly contemporary satire about the European consumer market and the implications of losing the working humans out of sight in favour of profits having to grow according to predefined targets.