“After shaving his mustache, a resident of Saint Petersburg is denied access to his bank account. A Kafkaesque story that questions the limits of our identification systems.”
Our protagonist of the day, Ivan Rasputin, wakes up one morning and decides to shave his mustache. A simple and mundane action, but one that becomes the unwitting trigger of a real bureaucratic odyssey. Indeed, when Ivan goes to the bank, the facial recognition machine does not recognize him and denies access to his account. His mustache, which he had for years, was now marked on all his identification documents.
The man then desperately tries to prove his identity with official papers, but the bank employees retort that “without a mustache, it’s not Ivan.” As for updating his identity photo to issue one without a mustache, it is rejected at the identity office because the recording machine is broken.
In search of a solution to this identification problem, Ivan proposes to show a mole hidden under his mustache. Paradoxically, after verification, the invisible mole, which is not present on any identity photo, is accepted as proof of identity. “We always knew it was you, Mr. Rasputin. It was only necessary to follow the procedures,” declares the bank agent, brushing off the frustrations of the man missing his mustache.
From this strange Kafkaesque story, we note the uniqueness of an administration which, in its bureaucratic logic, accepts an invisible mole as proof of identity, while it had refused all other evidence previously presented by Ivan. The limits of current identification systems are thus highlighted, questioning their reliability and effectiveness.
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