Contamination
Logline: Sarah meets her maker. Her maker isn’t pleased.
Synopsis: Power has become even more precious since the disbanding of OPEC at the beginning of this century, so the warehouse is usually dark, except for scattered patches of light. In those lighted patches, the Work Team is on the move. Dressed against the cold they wear a jumble of odd clothes so that it’s hard to tell male from female, adult from child. They are like Dockers, swearing, drinking, fighting, working.
ED is a little different; despite being head of the team he sneaks a look at the restricted news channels when the others aren’t watching soap operas or reality TV shows. Although the most controversial corporations tend to own the news channels too, it makes him feel better to at least know what the lies are.
Ed harasses the Team out to work as they grumble and joke. Forklifts scurry as they move and maintain the 2 metre tall metal pods that line the warehouse. Each pod hums with life, protecting the sleeping bodies inside, a product manufactured to provide replacement organs for the abused bodies of the rich upper tiers of this society.
From her laboratory, high up above the warehouse floor REGINA watches. REGINA puts the DNA together, disrespected by her underlings; she is shy of her superiors, especially her direct boss, the hostile and bored ANGELO, who she has a crush on. Discovering an input error Regina sends Ed and his young son, BUB, out to investigate. The two return with nothing to report and yet out in the dark warehouse one of the pods begins to open.
The Work Team has finished for the day as product 221 wakes up shivering. Stepping out of the pod she wanders toward the only light source, Regina’s lab.
Regina is terrified to be faced with her creation but as she interacts with her it, she realises how smart it is. Regina has been secretly experimenting with DNA. She decides to cover up her mistake and keep her creation for testing. She names her “SARAH” after her favourite soap opera character.
Sarah learns quickly; too quickly and as she becomes more aware of her environment she becomes more challenging, threatening Regina’s hold on her “friend”. A chance meeting with Ed sets the two on a collision course with her maker/mother and the forces of the sinister clone hunters of UNIT 7.
A darkly comic story of love and betrayal set against a backdrop of corporate logic. Contamination is where Brazil meets Wall Street a parable of our brave new corporate world.
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