CupsOfSilver

Sleep Dealer depicts a dystopian future that explores the many ways in which technology both oppresses and connects migrants through the use of “nodes”. A border wall, similar to what the current United States President Trump has discussed building, has ended unauthorized Mexico-US immigration. However, migrant workers are now replaced by robots, remotely controlled by the same class of would-be emigrants. Yet through their work, their life force is ultimately is used up, and they are disposed of. 

This issue of being connected but not connected through the use of the node technology is a major theme throughout the movie. The character Luz even states at one point that she does not like the distance between people and that the technology of the nodes helps to close the gap. However, through the use of the nodes in the work of the sleep dealers human connection is disrupted. The work the sleep dealers do is basic unskilled labour, such as a nanny or picking oranges and yet they are replaced by robots that they now control through the node technology. Not only is this isolating work but it is potentially deadly as seen in the film when another factory working is killed by a mass of electricity and other older workers are depicted as being permanently blinded by their work. This notion of no true connection to the product of the workers’ work is reminiscent of Marx’s notion of the proletariat. These “sleep dealers” like the proletariat Marx describes have no connection to their product, they do not control the means of production, and they are treated as disposable objects that essentially provide the stable means of living for the “upper class” or the United States as Sleep Dealer portrays.

The connection the nodes implemented on the bodies of the characters while being disconnected at times also provide a source of connection within the film. Luz uses her memories and the technology available to her to profit off of her memories. Through the selling and uploading of her memories Luz creates a connection between herself, Memo, and Rudy. Similar to how in current society social media such as Facebook and Instagram can be disconnecting for some individuals it can at the same time provide a connection like the node technology and the selling of memories in Sleep Dealer. The sharing of one’s own personal experiences for the masses to see today through social media has created connections between strangers who can relate or are interested in the experiences. Luz in a sense is participating in this similar market of sharing and distributing personal experiences, on a much more literal level. By sharing her memories of Memo and by Rudy consuming Luz’s experiences the three characters connect through the use of the technology available to them which ultimately allows the three to create a bond and change within themselves and the communities they interact with.