CRAFT & ENCODE present: Gattaca (1997)

Starring among others Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, and Jude Law, Andrew Niccol's feature film debut Gattaca (US 1997) presents us with a dystopic vision of a future society where genetic engineering has created an apparently insurmountable division between physically and cognitively enhanced so-called 'valids' and natural born 'in-valids'. While the former are perceived suitable for careers in correspondence to their enhanced capabilities, members of the latter group are left with underpaid low-status jobs and lack basic protection by welfare systems and state apparatus.

The story follows Vincent Freeman, an 'in-valid' who attempts to acquire a job in the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation as a navigator on a space mission to Titan. To be able to do this, Vincent has to pose as a 'valid' and conceal his real identity. He can achieve this with the help of a disabled former swimming champion who donates hair, skin particles, and other genetic materials to Vincent allowing him to fool the daily gene and urine tests 'securing' the facility. The scenes where Vincent every morning meticulously scrubs his skin to remove his own genetic imprint offer a haunting physical directness to an exclusory system that rules society. Encountering sudden obstacles but also support and care from unexpected hold, Vincent struggles to overcome new challenges posed by a murder inquiry at the space agency threatening his plans at the last minute.

The film takes up important issues about gene-based selection, eugenics, and the limits of science. In particular in times of increased focus on an optimalization of everything ranging from management to basic life functions, Niccol's film can serve as a timely warning against further exacerbating current tendencies of relentless effectivisation and ranking by pointing to a series of potential negative repercussions.

Besides this, the film also celebrates individual agency and will in face of a system that is rigged against the main protagonist. While this is a good basis for an inspiring story, Gattaca leaves pressing question of politics and social mobilisation out of focus. What is directed attention to is the struggle of an individual to break his chains and succeed against the odds as an inspiration for others and not a collective mobilisation for the sake of challenging and changing an oppressive and unfair system. By these means the film serves as a good example for the specific feel of the late 1990s when individual freedom and prowess still had a hegemonic status as the prime means to social ascension and progressive change. The overall mantra of work-hard-and-succeed-in-the-end surely resonated better back then compared to today.