UKI
Shu Lea Cheang, Deutschland 2009-2023, 80 min, eOmdU
Set your electric sheep free range. It is 2060, what do you do with expired humanoids?
UKI’s storyline unfolds as we follow a defunct replicant REIKO dumped on Etrashville - a vast dump for tech - who tries to pull themselves back together with the help of Etrashville's transgenic inhabitants. Parallel to REIKO’s trajectory is that of an infected city where we are made aware of the reckless schemes of the biotech enterprise, GENOM Co.
The three narratives interweave in three film sets - (1) A virtual BioNet owned by GENOM Co. takes human bodies hostage to re-engineer red blood cells into nano-computing self-generated orgasms. BioNet collects enhanced orgasm data through handshake wet-data transmission and ultimately produces orgasmic red pills for mass consumption. (2) A besieged diner in the city where the infected congregate to exchange own orgasm data for fresher, intenser, mutual orgasm. The diner is also the meeting-place for hackers who traverse time and space, bringing in news of protest and manifestation while uncovering GENOM’s bio-engineering scheme. (3) Etrashville, set in the Deep Continent, where REIKO awakes to find their glitched body undergoing a series of transformations as they encounter the transgenic queer creatures who inhabit Etrashville.
As the plot thickens, REIKO’s body is coded, recoded and finally collapses to re-emerge as UKI the Virus. Setting back GENOM's plans, UKI the Virus seems on the brink of swarming through the infected city to liberate the red blood cells. Through virus becoming, viral love, we find a way to reclaim our viral bodies.