‘The ideas that Cronenberg puts forth are powerful and poignant; his subject is the effort to make art amid a despoiled cultural environment and debased cultural consumption’ – New Yorker

In a synthetic future without physical pain, celebrity performance artists Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) and Caprice (Léa Seydoux) showcase bodily mutations and live surgery for audiences. While a mysterious group pursues Tenser to understand this next phase of human existence, a government agency tries to exploit him for their own agenda.

Directed by body horror master David Cronenberg, this critically acclaimed international co-production offers an unsettling lens on art, humanity and spectacle.

Join us after the film for a wide-ranging and thought-provoking panel discussion exploring industrial environments and the future of human evolution; the aesthetics and limits of exploring the body as, and through, art; and what, if anything, natural, artificial and synthetic mean for our techno-biological futures.

Panellists (More panellists to be announced soon)

Camille McLeod is a PhD candidate in the School of Sociology at the Australian National University researching the role images and image-based technologies play in shaping embodied perception and social life – with a focus on the networked-image on Instagram. With a background in special effects makeup artistry, McLeod has previously researched the impact of imagery in extreme body horror cinema.

More panellists to be announced soon

Moderator: Dr Dan Santos

Dr Dan Santos is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. His interests span the social, economic and environmental dimensions of emerging biotechnologies, especially questions around innovation, public engagement and openness in science. Recently, this has included biohacking, synthetic biology and stem cells. He is also a film buff and former reviewer.