Sleep Dealer

Plot

'Sleep Dealer' is set in a future, militarized world marked by closed borders, virtual labor and a global digital network that joins minds and experiences, where three strangers risk their lives to connect with each other and break the barriers of technology.

Memo Cruz (Luis Fernando Peña), works at a factory, one of several sleep dealers. Here, workers are connected to the network via suspended cables connected to implanted nodes in their arms and back, allowing them to control the robots that have replaced them as unskilled labor on the other side of the border. The sleep dealers are called so because one may collapse if one works long enough. The story is told as a flash back, as Memo remembers his home in Santa Ana Del Rio, Oaxaca. His father wants him to participate in growing crops on the meagre family homestead. Memo's passion however is electronics and hacking. The homestead also has dried up on account of a dam built nearby and owned by the private corporation Del Rio Water. Memo and his father must trek on foot to buy water by the bag, while monitored by security cameras armed with machine guns. The media on American hi-def TV shows glimpses of a technological dystopia, although in a positive light with superficial spin-doctoring. As a hobby, Memo is building an electronic receiver that can tap into communications. As he continues to work on it, its range increases to far away cities.

One summer, a remote-controlled military aerial vehicle operated by the security forces of Del Rio Water catches him monitoring a frequency used by the drones, an act that warrants a brutal attack. He disconnects in time before the drone can locate him with certainty. On another occasion, he and his brother watch a live TV broadcast about a drone action that is about to destroy a building known to be intercepting drone communication. They quickly realize that the building is their own home where Memo has his equipment, and run to save their father whose life is in danger. However, they are too late, and the vehicle launches a rocket at the father, who had miraculously escaped a first attack on the building, instantly killing him. The pilot of the drone is shown to be Rudy Ramirez (Jacob Vargas). Memo boards a bus to the city Tijuana to find work.

The same bus is also boarded by Luz Martínez (Leonor Varela). Memo notices that Luz has nodes on the wrist for interfacing with the digital network, and asks her where he can get them for free. She tells him that he can find someone, known as a coyotek, to connect him by asking around in a certain alley. Luz has loans and may default. She makes a living by uploading memories to an online memory trading company, TruNode where viewers pay for content. She uploads her memory of meeting Memo.

Memo is robbed of his money during his first attempt to seek a coyotek. He finds an abandoned shack to stay at the edge of the city, where other node workers live. Luz gets a sale for her memory of Memo, and a prepaid offer for her next memory of him. Luz finds him and comes to know he is out of money. She helps him get a node-job at a bar, which has the equipment. It so happens that she is the coyotek, having learned from her ex-boyfriend and she does him a favor.

Luz tries to upload more experiences. TruNode makes her reveal feelings rather than just the story. The person who requested the information is revealed to be Ramirez working for Del Rio Water. Luz and Memo open up to each other and have a connected sex. Upon receiving the next upload, Ramirez has his doubts confirmed that his work made him kill a good man, though his family disparages his concerns.

Memo discovers that Luz has been paid to upload her memories of him, and so he leaves her feeling betrayed. He works over-time at the sleep-dealer, risking exhaustion. Luz writes to him and mails him a recording of her memories as a parting gift. In the meantime, Ramirez has crossed the fortified US-Mexican border to meet Memo. As Ramirez explains himself, Memo tries to run perceiving danger. Ramirez catches up and explains he was under orders and offers to help.

Memo rejoins Luz and recruits her help to connect Ramirez into the network. He accesses the Del Rio Water security network to control one of the company's drones. Upon discovery that Ramirez is not heeding orders, Ramirez is pursued by other drones. After heated aerial dogfighting, Ramirez manages to blast a hole in the dam, directly where Memo's father had once tossed a pebble in helpless frustration. Memo receives news from his home and neighboring subsistence farms, celebrations of the return of ancestral waters, albeit not necessarily permanent. Ramirez goes further south in Mexico as he is no longer able to return to his family in the US. Memo moves on with his life in Tijuana.

Cast

Reception

Sleep Dealer was generally well received by critics, with a 70% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The movie won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, The H.R. Giger Award for the Best International Film at The Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, and a special mention Amnesty International Film Prize at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival. The film was nominated for a Breakthrough director at the Gotham Independent Film Awards 2008, and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature in 2009.

A.O. Scott, of The New York Times wrote "Exuberantly entertaining — a dystopian fable of globalization disguised as a science-fiction adventure…. Mr. Rivera — a brilliant young director — takes his audience into a future of “aqua-terrorism” and cyberlabor that I wish I could dismiss as implausible..." in his review of the 2008 New Directors/New Films Festival.

Kenneth Turan, of The Los Angeles Times wrote "Adventurous, ambitious and ingeniously futuristic, "Sleep Dealer" is a welcome surprise. It combines visually arresting science fiction done on a budget with a strong sense of social commentary in a way that few films attempt, let alone achieve..." in his review of the film.