Set in a futuristic industrial dystopia with a 1950s soviet realist aesthetic, TRAUMA tells the story of a boy brought to celebrate his birthday at the grounds of a factory. The boy clings to a mysterious soft metallic object, the way any child might cling to their favourite teddy bear. The object is clearly well loved, old and beaten, stitched and restitched over the years. Inside the factory workers are making the same futuristic toys, stuffing each one full of human hair.

 

The manager of the factory greets the boy smilingly, but as the boy is now too old to have such a comfort toy, he takes it away from him. Inside the factory, managers perform spot checks on the workers, those with old clothes and hair that is too long are pulled aside to be made examples of. Outside, the manager takes his place on a stage as workers congregate in the courtyard, surrounded by gigantic vertical screens displaying advertisements for unknown future beauty products, toys, foods, sports events...

 

The boy, distressed at losing his “bear”, breaks from his family and runs through the rapidly forming crowd in the hope of getting it back. He is soon pursued by security guards, but escapes their grasp, climbing up the side of the building where he watches the spectacle below.

 

Onstage, the manager humiliates workers that have not kept their appearances up to scratch. Those with beaten clothes are ordered to strip to their underwear and put on new clothes, those with hair that is too long or messy have it cut.

 

The boy, seeing the manager take his toy in his hands, scampers down to the stage, but arrives too late, as the manager takes the scissors to this worn old object, ripping it apart, and taking the hair from inside. The manager takes the boy’s jaw in his hands and swipes the scissors across his face. The crowd goes silent. 

 

As the manager leaves the stage, we find the boy lined up proudly in the crowd, touching the blood dripping from his face. We see now that all of the workers in the crowd have the same two scars across their cheek that the boy will.

 

On a screen behind the stage, an advertisement end with text appearing on screen: “Heal yourself”.