I haven’t seen 22 July yet so I’m only talking about some of the comments by Greengrass I’ve read in the promotion of this film. I find them a little troubling.

In an interview he gave for BBC Radio 5 Live he made similar statements to the one quoted above – the fight against terrorism in the face of an extreme right-wing threat across Europe and the West – but elaborated further by saying the erosion of democracy has gone hand in hand with the rise of the right-wing and anti-globalisation movements. Here’s the problem: he’s not factually correct. What he means is that he thinks democracy needs to be protected from democratic decisions he disagrees with.

Worse still is that he casts aspersions in the most general sense: he says democracy has to be defended by new young generation particularly in the UK and the US – but he doesn’t name names. He doesn’t say which political movements in these countries he finds “undemocratic”. Which means that it’s impossible to refute his claims.

However, I think we all know what he’s talking about: Donald Trump and Brexit. Whatever your views on either, Trump was elected democratically, and Vote Leave won the EU referendum with the biggest voter turn-out for a generation. These are examples of democracy in action – whether you agree with the outcomes or not. In fact, the much harder lesson (which I’m not convinced Greengrass truly grasps) is that the principles of democracy are so much easier to defend when you agree with decisions, and so much more tempting to disregard when you don’t. If there is any popular movement sweeping the West today, it is this.