Sleep Dealer is a fascinating sci-fi movie from Mexico by Alex Rivera.This is a film about a young man from a tiny village, who after the death of his father, goes to a big city to look for a job, with high hopes, and gets introduced to the a high-tech hell of the city dwellers. This is a world he always wished to know more about, but it's one, where with the use of advanced technologies, man is used to the extremes, man is humiliated and his only value is in making profit for the company.
The basic idea makes you think about the movie Surrogates, but it is somehow more realistic and gives you a much better picture of what uses the technologies that are described in cyberpunk novels could really have. It is not about an insanely comfortable lifestyle which allows you to do everything virtually by connecting to some network with some bodily implants. Since this is a Mexican movie, it is focusing more on the new ways of exploitation. It is about poor Mexicans doing all the work in the rich countries via connecting to the network from the distance.
Apart from the thought-provoking parts of the movie, it also has entertainment value. It is also a mystery story and there is also a touching love story in it.
Sleep Dealer is probably one of the best sci-fi movies of recent years. (Trailer.)
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