By Ivonne Sheen

Deleuze adapts Foucault’s disciplinary societies’ theory to the contemporary ethos, and describes our context as societies of control. The difference resides in the form of the forces that are applied to citizens, that is to say workers. In contemporary societies, control is related to numbers and to monetary flow. In this way, increasing our skills and at the same time submerged in an infinite competitive spiral, that don’t give us an end until we maybe become rich or die. Thriller way of life, that is ours, that is capitalist way of living.

Human’s psychology have changed as well, and we seem to be more prone to become emotionally and psychologically ill, or damaged. The speed of novelty is our main enemy and we seem to be running against the wind. A strong wind that comes with a heavy weight of survival and self esteem. In this environment, what’s the meaning of dreaming? In an idealistic interpretation, it might be a hope, a fictional chance for things to be better, to become successful, or to love. Nevertheless, dreaming surrounded and fed by capitalism, changes its meaning and become in an extension of the constant tension that people suffer.

When we sleep we let our mind get free from the demand of reality, from the concrete, practical world. However, work and money set the alarms in our heads of survival and maybe of perfection as well. Sophie Bruneau with deep sensibility paint us a landscape of people’s feelings and psychology in capitalist way of living. Through a series of interviews, she intercedes between her interviewed ones and us. Dreaming under capitalism transforms into a window, that is also a mirror, a device for empathy. Characteristic that belong to movies as part of its essence.

We listen to a series of dreams that are related to work experiences, mainly dreams of fear and bad memories. We have the chance to see the faces of the people that are sharing their intimate thoughts with us, but we also have the chance to witness the emptiness and coldness of a modern city, with big buildings that diminish any kind of humanity expression or presence. A minimal registration, a simple series of questions that we can’t hear but is evident that the director wasn’t looking for any saturated drama. Bruneau works with empathy, to create a film full of empathy, thought, and respect. A therapeutic film for the ones implied and for the witnesses on the other side of the screen.

Director: Sophie Bruneau
Producer: Alter ego films
Country: Belgium
Year: 2017
Duration: 63 min