Project Description

Society is a science fiction short film set in a world that is at once familiar and foreign: a world whose communities have already begun to crumble under the impact of climate catastrophe, and where a privileged minority has been able to escape the consequences of this collapse — by escaping the human body itself.

Through an extreme procedure, the members of this elite have decoupled from the Earth’s lifeworld by swapping their biological bodies for fully synthetic ones, re-incarnating themselves as undying beings who are impervious to the increasingly inhospitable conditions of the dying planet. This has given rise to a new, radical divide: between those who can afford such bodies and can therefore survive on an ever more hellish globe — proper members of “Society” — and those who cannot, and are doomed to oblivion.

Like the fortified walls and fences of our day, this new “border” — however well-guarded — is not without its gaps. A network of “Skindealers,” working with opportunistic authorities, operate an extensive black market that places synthetic bodies within closer reach of the lower classes.

Astrid has come to one such “Skindelaer”, hoping to cross: to leave her body and come to inhabit a new one — but she is struck by doubts at a borderland, questioning whether the journey is worth continuing.

The Director

Following graduation from Canada’s Vancouver Film School, Adrian Replanski secured a film-related internship in Cuba, where he worked in Strawberry and Chocolate co-director Juan Carlos Tabio’s Lista de Espera (Waiting List).

Relocating to Cuba after completing his work practices, in 2007 he wrote and directed Fábrica de humo (The Smoke Factory), a feature film which was screened at numerous international festivals.

In 2009, he participated at the Guadalajara International Film Festival with his short film Decathexis, an experimental piece with which he also took part in the first Guadalajara Talent Campus, a film workshop sponsored by the Berlinale Talent Campus.

His 2010 animated short, New Clocks for the Wasted Hours, won several awards at Cuba’s 10th Emerging Filmmakers’ Festival and was selected for the official competition at the International New Latin American Film Festival that year.

After completing the philosophical horror short Portrait of the Shipwreck (2011), in 2014 he filmed The Zone, a re-imagining of Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker set in an abandoned industrial area in Cuba.

In 2020, his sci-fi short Cargo B earned him the first prize in the Mallorca Evolution International Film Festival's 48-Hour Film Competition and a production grant from Palma Pictures.

His latest science fiction short, Iskra — winner of the third-prize at Kazan’s Film 7 Days competition— has been screened at numerous prestigious international festivals, including Estonia’s Oscar-qualifying Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF Shorts Section).

The Production Company

Created in 2016 by Laurent and Bertrand Normand, Les Films du Jour Prochain is a film production company whose aim is to help screenwriters and directors make films that have an international scope and are related to our contemporary world. Its portfolio includes Bertrand Normand’s documentaries Ballerina, Tchaikovsky on the Road and The Rocking Baritone.

The company has also produced a number of short films, including The Taste of Ginger, by Jean-Robert Thomann, Iskra, by Adrian Replanski, and The Photographer, by Bertrand Normand, all of which have participated in various international film festivals and obtained numerous awards. Les Films du Jour Prochain is currently developing and producing narrative and documentary film projects in France, Ukraine and Taiwan.

Our Lead Actress

Our production is privileged to have secured international actress Tamar Baruch for the lead role. Making her acting debut at the age of 11 in the popular Dutch series De Kleine Waarheid, Tamar Baruch went on to study at London’s prestigious East Fifteen Acting School. Since then, she has played in numerous international film and television productions under the direction of renowned filmmakers. Some of her most recent work includes unforgettable characters in the popular Netflix series Family Business and the BBC’s acclaimed Years and Years.

Our Work

Society is Adrian Replanski’s third science-fiction film preoccupied with the reality of environmental collapse, human displacement, borders and the disquieting new apartheids that loom on the horizon of a warming world.

In the award-winning Cargo B, desperate migrants ingest a poison to induce temporary clinical death and become lifeless merchandise, for a brief window of time, so that they may be transported across an otherwise impregnable border, to the site of an elusive “Commune.”

Iskra — a film completed within the span of a week as part of Kazan’s Film 7 Days Festival — explores the potentially abusive and exploitative relations, and the possibility of solidarity and love, that can stem from the disintegration of our food system.

One of Le Films du Jour Prochain's most recent accomplishments as a production company is Jean-Robert Thomann’s The Taste of Ginger, an internationally acclaimed mid-length feature about love and death, all of whose dialogues are sung by the characters.

What We Need

Though we have considerable experience in creating complex future worlds using minimal resources, the logistical, technical and artistic requirements of filmmaking still make it a costly process — particularly since we want to ensure our cast and crew are taken care of and that the production properly rewards their talent, as well as their time and dedication.

What we are seeking is the film’s production budget, which, on the basis of our filmmaking experience, as well as current equipment and service rates in Madrid and Paris (the tentative cities of production), we have determined to be 30,000 euros. At the end of this section is a breakdown of this budget.

As way of an example of how the money will be used, we can refer to three of the production needs and their specificities.

One of these are the locations of the shoot. After a long and thorough search, we have found and obtained authorization to film in the Fort de Cormeilles, a military fortification located near Paris, which was built in the 19th century as part of plans to provide defence for the city. The fort not only offers several spaces that are reminiscent of ancient prisons — which would work very well for our story’s dystopian setting — it also relatively close to our base of operations, making it a practical option for us in terms of logistics. Following conversations with the site’s management, we have been able to obtain a deal for a 6-day shoot at three of the fort’s interior locations:

Another expense comprises the film’s art department and wardrobe needs. Though Society is a minimalist, character-driven premise, it is still ambitious in terms of props and wardrobe, requiring the rental and creation of sophisticated uniforms and garbs and, most significantly, the design and production of two “futuristic” items: a piece of synthetic skin and a mind-storage device, known as an Ark, which is central to our story. In addition, the chambers in our 19th-century fort must be dressed to place the audience in a future border facility that will evoke the broader, disquieting universe we seek to create. These props and sets are being designed — and will be built — by a team of highly talented students from the prestigious Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Nantes, which we are fortunate to have secured for our production. The sums we seek will be devoted to the purchase of materials, as well as the rental of furniture and transportation, needed to create these.

A third and crucial expenditure consists in offering our amazing actors — the people who will bring to life the story of Society — a salary that will acknowledge both their immense talent and their hard work and dedication.

Why Society

In a recent report, UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston referred to the disquieting reality of “climate apartheid”, a “scenario where the wealthy pay to escape overheating, hunger and conflict while the rest of the world is left to suffer.”

Though the kind of extreme divide depicted in Society is still the stuff of speculative fiction, the difference between how climate change impacts different classes is already apparent, and, as a growing number of human communities face climate disasters and different forms of ecocide, the wealthy nations of the world — responsible for the lion’s share of carbon emissions — are seeing increasingly potent racist movements calling for the building of new border fences and high walls.

In addition to offering a captivating cinematic experience, Society will therefore also do what great science fiction has always done: provide powerful and compelling insight into our predicament by affording a glance at the present moment through the lens of an imagined future.

How You Can Help

One important way you can lend a hand is by making a contribution to the project — and, truly, any amount will help!

If you’re unable to make a contribution at this time, another means of giving Society a boost is by sharing this campaign and its related publications and updates on your social networks, engaging with the content we put out there and simply sharing the news with as many friends and contacts as you can. This will help us reach more people and ultimately achieve our goal.

We truly believe in this project and are convinced you will feel proud and rewarded to have participated in it.