Massive Attack - Special Cases

What this video is

Released on 24 February 2003, 'Special Cases' arrived during one of the most politically charged moments of the early 21st century — weeks before the US-led invasion of Iraq. The video's dystopian narrative of cloned humans raised within rival corporate entities reflects anxieties about bioethics, globalization, and institutional control that permeated European cultural discourse at the time. Massive Attack's…

Why it matters

A landmark in early-2000s trip-hop visual culture, 'Special Cases' represents the convergence of French graphic design auteurism (H5/Partizan) with UK electronic music. The dual-video structure — two versions presenting mirrored perspectives of the same dystopian narrative — was formally…

The director

H5 is a French design and animation studio founded in 1994 by Ludovic Houplain (b. 1969, Orléans) and Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, later expanded to include Hervé de Crécy. The collective rose to prominence directing music videos for Air, Röyksopp, Alex Gopher,…