Crimes of the Future
Imaginative science fiction film by David Cronenberg about an artist who grows new organs in his body and surgically removes them during his performances.
More than twenty years after eXistenZ (1999), Cronenberg returns to the genre in which he made some of his films (VIDEODROME, THE FLY). CRIMES OF THE FUTURE is set in a future in which the human body has increasingly adapted to our technological and polluted environment. Viggo Mortensen plays the lead role of Saul Tenser, an artist who uses the state of his body – he suffers from accelerated evolution syndrome – to grow unknown organs in his body. Together with his partner Caprice – a role played by star French actress Léa Seydoux – he removes these organs during controversial performances that soon attract the attention of both the government and a mysterious underground group.
CRIMES OF THE FUTURE had its world premiere in the competition of the Cannes Film Festival. The film explores ideas from transhumanism, a philosophical movement in which technology is seen as a means of positively redirecting our evolution. At the same time, Cronenberg also shows how technological progress is viewed with suspicion by parties who fear that our humanity is at stake. The film fits seamlessly into the oeuvre of the master of the body horror genre: Cronenberg analyses the human body to better understand the human condition. (mv)