The Pervert’s Guide to Utopias

synopsis

In his third cinematic guide, Slavoj Žižek approaches utopias through their apparent opposite: images of oppression, revolt and the end of the world. Drawing on psychoanalysis, Marxism and mischievous humour, he dissects Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner and Melancholia, inhabiting recreated scenes from these films. Film clips alternate with footage of contemporary conflicts and political speeches, in which fiction finds unsettling echoes. This associative essay explores how easily resistance can become part of the very system it opposes. Žižek locates the possibility of genuine change in a willingness to relinquish comforting illusions – including those that offer us a vision of a better world.

“I structured the film to put the apocalypse in the middle, in order to think beyond the notion of the end.” — Sophie Fiennes, Venezia News

biography

Sophie Fiennes (1967) is a British documentary filmmaker. She directed the artist portraits Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow (2010) and Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (2017). She previously collaborated with Slavoj Žižek on The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (2006) and The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (2012).

film details

director:	Sophie Fiennes
producer:	Katie Holly , Evan Horan , Martin Rosenbaum , Shani Hinton, Jožko Rutar , Andrew Grant, Lisette Kelder , Ineke Kanters , Miha Cernec
photography:	Remko Schnorr
editing:	Sophie Fiennes

contact

Film Europe
info@filmeurope.cz