Artist's Choice Screening: Gattaca
Selected by Jo Longhurst as her Artist's Choice Screening as part of We Contain Multitudes
The directorial debut of Andrew Niccol (who would go on to write The Truman Show), Gattaca is a much-loved dystopian thriller, with a trio of winning performances from stars Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law.
Defying a system obsessed with genetic perfection, Vincent (Ethan Hawke) - a man marked out as an “In-Valid” - assumes the identity of a member of the biological elite in order to travel into space with the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. However, a week before his mission, Vincent is implicated as a suspect in a murder case. With a relentless investigator in pursuit and the colleague he has fallen in love with beginning to suspect his deception, Vincent's dreams steadily unravel.
While the narrative twists and turns, the film also delves into prescient and complex ideas of eugenics, technology and societal inequity.