It is the year 2060 and AIDS has been eradicated. However, in some, the HIV virus has now mutated into a gene from which a drug can be produced that has become the white powder of the twenty-first century. With a virtually supported scanning system, secret police are trying to identify anyone who carries this gene. Meanwhile, elsewhere, young men are hooked up to a system of cables and ordered to produce sperm for the production of pharmaceuticals that will dominate the market. Filmed in Berlin, Taiwan-born multimedia artist and filmmaker Shu Lea Cheang’s science fiction dystopia revolves around a struggle to gain control over the production and exploitation of bodily fluids. Her film is like an orgiastic opera; a breathless round of bodies, secretions, performances and sexual acts often performed in the service of an overriding economy. An unusual, largely experimental and deliberately parapornographic drama in which the borders between the sexes as well as homo-, hetero-, bi-, trans- or intersexual are constantly blurred.
by Shu Lea Cheang
with Candy Flip, Bishop Black, Kristina Marlen, William E. Morris, Alexander Geist, Aérea Negrot, Dieter Rita Scholl, Sadie Lune, Doris Boris, Caprice Crawford
Germany 2017 English 80’ Colour

With

  • Candy Flip (Natasha)
  • Bishop Black (Hans/Alexei)
  • Kristina Marlen (Eva)
  • William E. Morris (DI)
  • Alexander Geist (Levi)
  • Aérea Negrot (Dat Queen)
  • Dieter Rita Scholl (Client X)
  • Sadie Lune (DPT)
  • Doris Boris (Didier)
  • Caprice Crawford (Madame X)

Crew

Written and Directed by Shu Lea Cheang
Cinematography James Carman
Editing Jörn Hartmann
Music Aérea Negrot
Sound Design Zohar Bonnie
Sound Vincent Zegveld
Production Design Nelja Stump
Costumes Ramona Petersen
Make-Up Pascale Jean-Louis, CrisToni Florido Acosta
Casting Paula Alamillo Rodriguez
Assistant Director Alexandra Demetriou
Production Managers Sonja Klümper, Paula Alamillo Rodriguez
Producers Jürgen Brüning, Sonja Klümper, Paula Alamillo Rodriguez
Co-Producer Stephan Holl
Co-Production Rapid Eye Movies Köln

World sales

m-appeal – Raspberry & Cream

Produced by

Jürgen Brüning Filmproduktion

Amard Bird Films

Additional information

www.fluidthemovie.com

Shu Lea Cheang

Born in Taiwan in 1954, this filmmaker and multimedia artist studied film at New York University. Her creative work has been shown in museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Guggenheim Museum. Her film Fresh Kill premiered in the Panorama, and I.K.U. was presented at Sundance. Fluidø is her third feature film. She sees herself as a digital nomad and realised projects in Tokyo, London, Berlin, Amsterdam and Zurich before settling in Paris where she is living today.

Filmography

1994 Fresh Kill; IFB Panorama 2001 I.K.U. 2017 Fluidø

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2017