The movie, LUCY, is a masterpiece; it portrays human as the powerful species.  LUCY is an embodiment of a modernism; a dream/ idea about an intelligent victorious man conquering others, time and space. It is about what Nietzsche said ‘God is Dead’. LUCY is about knowledge as a source of power and control.

The age of modernism is over and LUCY gets to its 100% presence and disappears. The age of modernism gets to its full potential and eventually destroys itself; it leaves us its achievements and disappears. The time for a rigid, logical/ rational insensible thinking is coming to an end.

LUCY is about the rise and fall of logical/ rational/ intellectual mind that controls others, information, time and space. It is true that human without brain are not human but the exhaustion of human intelligence and exaggerated use of power and control will have led us to destruction of human species, environment and morality.

In the movie, the main two engines/ motives for human species to survive are: a) immortality b) reproduction. In the history of mankind, human have swung between these two. In modern era, the force to increase immortality was intensified/heightened and consequently, the reproduction rate became decreased.  We are at the end of this era.

We are going to swing back and forth to find equilibrium.  This will not be achieved when power and control run the mind of human beings. Equilibrium is achieved when power and knowledge are shared and interpreted relationally.

Yes, LUCY is a great example of what Michelle Foucault predicted. Yes, we have become LUCY. Yes, it is in all of us who were born into the rigid, logical, and rational world of modernism; it is in all of us who perpetuated modern thinking and implemented it in others’ lives and ours. Yes, LUCY is everywhere; LUCY is in all of us!

When I was leaving the theater, there were a young couple sat in their chairs looking puzzled. They said that they didn’t understand LUCY and they weren’t sure what LUCY was all about. Now, reflecting back on the young couple’s words, I have more appreciation for them.

It seems our new generations ask questions and scrutinize the presence of power and control in human interactions. The answer is new generations that question the achievements of technology, that look with suspicious upon greed, knowledge, and power. Their questions will bring the lost equilibrium back to life.

Yes, equilibrium will make us human, again, connected and engaged with each other relationally and ethically.  Equilibrium will allow all paradoxical pieces of understanding to co-exist; it will put an end to use of personal/social/technical/intellectual power over/against each other. Equilibrium will connect us not rationally but relationally.

Yes, the new era has begun!

Happy Possibilities,

Tahereh Barati