11/09/2025 - The new movie in post-production by Portugal’s Carlos Conceição, who was acclaimed for Tommy Guns, is a parody about the worrying search for physical perfection

A "body horror" parody about the cult-like and globalised ideals associated with the troubling search for physical perfection by way of plastic surgery, Carlos Conceição’s Bodyhackers is currently in post-production, with French firm Reel Suspects, directed by Matteo Lovadina, having just acquired world sales rights.

This is the third feature film by the Portuguese director of Angolan origin after Serpentarius [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (screened in the 2019 Berlinale Forum) and Tommy Guns [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlos Conceição
film profile] (screened in Locarno in 2022 while competing for the Europa Cinemas Label). For the record, the filmmaker previously garnered significant acclaim for his short films Goodnight Cinderella and Bad Bunny, which were selected for Cannes’ Critics’ Week in 2014 and 2017 respectively.

The cast stars American actor McCaul Lombardi (American Honey [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Andrea Arnold
film profile], Patti Cake$, Sollers Point [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Portugal’s Joana Ribeiro (the European Film Promotion’s Shooting Star of 2020 who was also well-received in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Terry Gilliam
film profile] and Crooked Lines [+see also:
trailer
interview: Joana Ribeiro
film profile]), the American actress of Romanian origin Elina Löwensohn (recently at her best in She Is Conann [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bertrand Mandico
film profile] and Don’t Let Me Die [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], to name two movies) and Portugal’s Alba Baptista (of the Netflix series Warrior Nun and Amelia’s Children). They’re joined by Dinarte de Freitas, Ivo Arroja and Jenna Thiam (Daydreams [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Caroline Deruas
film profile], Love Affair(s) [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuel Mouret
film profile]).

Written by the director himself, the story follows environmental activist Denver Blake who has decided to expose a cosmetics corporation that he believes is exploiting the insecurities caused by societal beauty standards. However, when he falls in love with Renée, a former ballerina obsessed with constantly enhancing her beauty, he becomes drawn into a mesmerizing underworld of plastic surgery, where healing flesh induces a permanent state of sexual arousal, multiple mutants seduce him in dark gardens, and constant metamorphoses and transcendental cures exude the hypnotic allure of a cult which even he cannot resist. Will he continue his fight, or join Renée in this endless spiral of pain and transformation?

Bodyhackers is produced by the filmmaker and by António Gonçalves on behalf of Portuguese firm Mirabilis, and draws on the talents of director of photography Rui Poças (Grand Tour [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marta Donzelli, Gregorio Pa…
interview: Miguel Gomes
film profile], Tabu [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Miguel Gomes
interview: Miguel Gomes
film profile] and Zama [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lucrecia Martel
film profile] and, this year, Sleepless City [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillermo Galoe
film profile] and The Souffleur [+see also:
film review
interview: Gastón Solnicki
film profile]).

(Translated from French)