Cybernetic Chains: Exploitation and Identity in a Maquiladoras Dystopia of Sleep Dealer by Alex Rivera

The study aimed to explore the politics depicted in the science fiction film Sleep Dealer (2008), directed by Alex Rivera, through the critical lens of Cyberpunk. The objective of the study was to elucidate exploitation, corporate dominance, and resistance within a dystopian framework, as portrayed in the fictional setting of Sleep Dealer. The study was a qualitative, inductive and interdisciplinary research. The significance of the critical work lies in its exploration of how labour is outsourced through cybernetic connections using automated measures, creating a new form of maquiladoras—factories where workers are exploited through digital means. It also examined the dehumanising effects of cybernetic labour and the erosion of personal identity under capitalist subjugation. The scarcity of scholarly research on the cybernetic exploitation of labour has prompted this study. Future researchers concluded that the multifaceted effects of nodes and digital workspaces on the well-being of the cyber-proletariat are explored in the film.