SLEEP DEALER
US, 2008, 88 minutes, Colour.
Luis Fernando Pena, Leonor Varela.
Directed by Alex Rivera.
First-time writer director, Alex Rivera, says that his father migrated to the US from Peru looking for work and his experience made his son realise that America wants the work but not the workers. This notion led him to some key ideas for a (slightly?) futuristic drama that blends social realism in the backblocks of Mexico and the squalor of the outskirts of Tijuana with a special effects world and action.
This is a world where individuals can be processed, inserted with nodes (like Johnny Mnemonic) and can be tuned into a global network where memories (visual and verbal) can be stored and accessed on a site, Trunode. But the nodes are also a means for transferring energy. Hispanic workers living behind a separating wall from the US can be linked electronically to working robots in the US on building sites and other workplaces. The military can do the same thing with drone planes used to bomb suspicious sites and kill enemies. The Hispanic workers gyrate and do the work motions while the skyscrapers are built in the American cities.
Topical in its themes of third world poverty and deprivation in the Mexican provinces (where rivers are dammed and local farmers have to go to collect and carry water and pay a price for it for their fields and groves) as well as themes of migration for work and the exploitation of labour in the towns, the film also contains a romance as well as defiant protest. (For these reasons, Amnesty International gave it its award in Berlin.)
1.The near future? The contemporary tone? Science fiction?
2.Mexico, the small village, isolated, the mountains, the desert, the dam, the cornfields, the contrast with Tijuana? The sophisticated aspects, the streets, the contrast with the outskirts, the shacks? The contrast with the United States, the building sites? The wall between Mexico and US?
3.The introduction, the robotics, audience fascination with robotics?
4.Memo, at home, his relationship with his family, parents, brother? His electronic skills, fixing up his satellite, listening in to the conversations from all over the world? Called to the meal? Going with his father to buy the water, the surveillance at the dam, the peasants being charged for the water? The cornfield, his father’s words about it being his heritage? His going to the city, watching the television, the irony of the information about the drone (*Drone?) program, the site of his surveillance, its being targeted? Hurrying with his brother, the bomber, the drone, the father and his seeing the attack, the bombing? The death of the father, Memo going to Tijuana, his brother and mother staying at home, his sending the money, the continued support?
5.The background of the Nodes, the network? The military and the drones – and the television programs and the news? The control, the precious water, the dams, the Aqua terrorists, the global interests of the companies?
6.Memo on the bus, the encounter with Luz, his story? Her going home, connected with the Nodes, her access to the computer, to her accounts, telling her stories, verbalising them on the Net? Selling them? The threats for her account? Her decision to search for Memo, finding him, offering him the Nodes, her conducting the procedure? The attraction? Her telling the stories, the voice on the computer questioning her truth?
7.Memo, in the city, fascinated by the Nodes, wanting to be transformed, the man offering to help, robbing him? Going to the outskirts, the shack, the old men and their welcome? Luz finding him? His being connected? His going to work in the factory, in construction, the money, the extra hours, sending the money home and seeing his family on the television screen? The relationship with Luz?
8.Rudy and his background, making good, the pilot, his first mission, his bombing Memo’s machine, shooting his father? Seeing the news? His conscience, seeking out Memo, the stories from Luz, talking with him?
9.The plan, Rudy and his ability as a drone pilot, going into the machine, the destruction of the dam, the water flowing free, hopes? Rudy and his hopes for restitution? His visits to his family – and their being proud of him, especially in his killing the enemy?
10.Memo, the family, the water available, his decision to stay in the city? His relationship with Luz?
11.The impact of the workers, their being behind the wall in Tijuana, the robotics, conducting the work in the United States? The special effects for this, their credibility?
12.The theme of Americans wanting the energy and the work done in the US – but the workers not in the US, behind the wall in Mexico?
13.The themes of global control, surveillance, networks? Information? The importance of rebellion and fighting back for individual and family rights?
