Sleep Dealer

The premise of this film and storytelling vision are exceptional, but the first warning sign was the lowest cost BD I have seen in recent memory (my cost was lower than the DVD).The story follows a man becoming part of a futuristic version of slave labor being used in America, but from south of the border via cyber links instead of physically being here. Workers are connected to their counterpart machines working both dangerous and agricultural jobs here in the United States. There are several subplots involving love, redemption and corporate treachery, but the main theme of sending the money home still rings true, even in this cyberfuture. The special effects are low grade, but they only get utilized a few times to showcase the military drones and robot workers (less than 5 minutes screen time).The Blu quality is non-existent. There is an overwhelming orange/yellow tint that drowns out any clarity (tried to be like  Traffic - Criterion Collection  but didn't work). There was a different camera used in the overhead city shots so they turned out clear, but otherwise the scenery is overexposed, and the grain and artifact are prevalent throughout. The 5.1 is used minimally but sounds flat. The supplements include a decent 10 minute making of and a commentary. The making of is worth the watch and has a narrated track describing the origins and process of making a passion piece like this.3.5 for the film and .5 for the supplements, but zero for the BD quality. But for this price, why not give it a try?

This is an amazing movie. There are so many humanity issues that this movie exposes. Overall This movie left me with a happy-sad feeling. The storyline is done well and even though this seems to be a non-Hollywood movie, it is just as good or better than good Hollywood movies. I will list some of the things that this movie depicts (Spoilers):-in this future, instead of migrant workers physically crossing the border and being exploited (worked) in person at a location, the workers work virtually through robots in long shifts. These 'workers' can then send money to family but with high taxes and fees. Instead of injuries in person from lack of safety protections by the employer, these workers can get injuries from electric surges and viruses.-Drone warfare and 'security' are in full swing in this future, and just suspecting a person of any wrongdoing means a drone operator is sent to assassinate the suspect. When the drone operators realize they did something wrong, they are fugitives.-People are so empty from being exploited that they are willing to exploit others by selling memories of them.-instead of drugs, people get some kind of stimulation to their nervous system through the nodes they have in their bodies.-Water is a means of controlling people and charging them high prices while keeping them in poverty.

"Sleep Dealer"(2008) is directed by Alex Rivera. This sci-fi film is about a man who leaves his small village after his father is killed by a drone. He finds work in the cyber world in the big city. The film is intriguing as it shows a solution to America's need for foreign workers but by using them without them actually living in the country as the cyber world opens up more job opportunities for foreigners. There were times where I felt that the movie wasn't quite as sophisticated as I was expecting in the CGI, or dialogue/acting/directing.Nevertheless the film is entertaining and gives us a view of what the near future might be like. (3.5/5)The blu-ray also has a documentary about how the movie came about which is narrated by the director. Rivera is an American director, born in New York, but the film is in Spanish with English subtitles.

I picked this particular dvd since it dealt with robots and the future. There is an old saying that you shouldn't let facts get into the telling of a good story. Once you ignore the facts that the border will never be enforced as shown in the dvd, that innocent civilians would be target by armed drones for hacking into signals or stealing water and finally if the robots can be made to do the work, why would you need people. In spite of these drawbacks, the story sucked you in as you see the guilt the drone pilot had over killing an innocent civilian cause he was just following orders. How real memories are sold over the Internet to total strangers who pay, is an interesting idea. That the drone pilot gets the information from a "writer" about a suffering young man whose father had been killed, is a real reach, since there would be so many other "stories" to sift through till it was found. Lastly, robots today can now build cars, why not other things in the future. They are already programmed to build, without human oversite on most of their construction efforts.

With water rights being purchased by private companies all over the world, this film could not be more timely. Sleep Dealer has a gorgeous color palette, great performances, excellent production design, and an intriguing premise: the US wants work accomplished, without workers. Now, they can have this. Workers operate all kinds of equipment via remote control. Memo has left his father's milpa, since the dam charges them more for water than they can afford for irrigation. He gets involved with a lovely woman, whose secret is that she's selling other people's memories as her own writing. Memo, meanwhile, searches for the soldier who killed his father (also by remote control). I see great things in this director's future.

This is a real 'sleeper' of a SciFi movie. I had heard about it as I don't recall it playing even in the Indie Theaters. I was really impressed with the production values and the acting. A really low key movie in a lot of ways; there isn't a lot of reliance on special effects and the plot is very interesting without 'talking down' to the audience. I recommend this little gem. BTW, the Blu Ray version is very good. No special features really; just a small documentary on the back story, but still worth your time and money.

Brilliant film. The DVD itself is an Italian edition with no English subtitles and therefore useless to me since I only speak English, but having checked just now the page DOES say that, so it's entirely my own fault lol

No UK subtitle?

Mit offensichtlich verdammt wenig Geld entstand der politisch-ambitionierte visionäre Sci-Fi-Thriller. Es geht um staatlichen Machtmissbrauch, lebennotwendigen Ressourcenhandel, moderne Sklaverei und seelische Verödung - dies könnte auch eine deprimierende Doku über Mexiko sein, aber die Fiktion arbeitet effektiv mit seinen Science-Fiction-Elementen und schafft so einen kritischen Film im Cyber-Gewand. Der Film ist ruhig und nimmt ein paar Klischeefallen mit, überzeugt aber mit außergewöhnlichen Bildern als originelle, kämpferische C-Perle.

Filt hat mich unterhalten, ein paar sehr klischeehafte Szenen am Anfang muss man einfach übersehen, aber dann gewinnt der Film an Selbständigkeit.

...avec une réflexion sous-jacente vraiment bien. Un avenir sombre présenté de manière réaliste. On ne regardera plus les réseaux sous un œil aussi sympathique, après avoir vu ce film...De quoi méditer sur les bienfaits de la technologie des communications et des robots...La musique aussi est bien :-)