15 Morningside Road, Edinburgh EH10 4DP, Tel: 0131 447 6394 or 0774 298 4459
Filhouse, Edinburgh - 6 April 2004
Organisers: Edinburgh International Science Festival, British Association (Edinburgh and Southeast Scotland Branch), Stevenson and Shepherd Science Events
SCHB participant: Dr Calum MacKellar was a member of the 4 person panel discussing the film after the projection.
As part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, the film Gattaca was presented at the Filmhouse with a post film discussion taking place with an invited panel. Chaired by Moyra Forrest (Research Center for Social Studies, University of Edinburgh), the panel comprised Dr Shona Kerr (University of Edinburgh, Molecular Medicine Centre, Western General Hospital), Dr Calum MacKellar (Scottish Council on Human Bioethics), and award-winning science-fiction author Ken MacLeod.
Film synopsis:
Every so often a film comes along that challenges our vision of the future - we leave the cinema in animated discussion with our companions - "could the world really turn out like that?" In 1998, one such film was released, Gattaca. A science-fiction thriller based in a world of designer test-tube babies and genetic discrimination, Gattaca takes place in a near future society convincingly portrayed, not with special effects, but through outstanding performances by Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law. Gattaca is the story of one man’s struggle against his predetermined genetic status and the society that deems him "in-valid".
Set in the twenty-first century, Gattaca offers a frightening vision of our future. Human success and failure are determined entirely by genetics. Those forged in test-tubes rule the world, and those unfortunate enough to have been born from humans - "in-valids"- are genetically discriminated against.
Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), one of the unfortunates born naturally, is coddled by his parents. In contrast to his brother, a perfect genetic specimen, Vincent is weak and sickly, and his eyeglasses give away his genetic inferiority. Vincent dreams of travelling into space, and despite the disadvantages of his birth, he set his sights on the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation, which controls all space travel. Leaving home, he enlists the aid of German (Tony Shalhoub), a DNA broker who sells false identities to the genetically inferior. German puts Vincent in contact with Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), a once-superior specimen who has been paralyzed in an accident. He is willing to sell his prime genetic material for cash. Vincent assumes Jerome's identity, but he must hide every one of his imperfections, including his defective eyesight.
Quickly rising through the ranks of the Gattaca Corporation, he meets and falls in love with Irene (Uma Thurman), a beautiful co-worker obsessed with her minor heart defect. Vincent is assigned a mission to travel in outer space, but a week before blast off, the director of the space agency is murdered and everyone in the program becomes a suspect. Headed by Detective Hugo (Alan Arkin), the police investigate the murder. When they find the eyelash of an in-valid at the murder scene, all signs point to Vincent, and a suspenseful game of cat-and-mouse ensues. Director Andrew Niccol has made a science fiction thriller that is truly visionary. Gattaca is a chilling and unforgettable look at one possibility for man's future."