Hand surgeons ruin lives chasing screen perfection

Aenne Schwarz and Louis Hofmann star as obsessive hand surgeons in “Objet a,” a new film by Berlin-based director Ann Oren that premiered this week at the Locarno Film Festival. Shot in muted tones and framed like clinical close-ups, the movie follows two specialists whose fixation on precision and control spirals into personal ruin as they navigate a world where screens dominate touch.

The project arrives amid a surge of artworks probing intimacy, power and bodily autonomy. Oren, who trained in philosophy before filmmaking, describes the film as a response to what she calls “tech fascism” — the way algorithms, notifications and curated images shape desire and self-worth. She points to studies showing people now touch flat screens more often than human skin, and couples report lower sexual satisfaction when phone use interrupts intimacy.

The cast’s performances anchor the film’s unsettling tone. Schwarz plays Dr. Lina Voss, a surgeon whose hands become instruments of both healing and domination, while Hofmann portrays her rival, Dr. Elias Kern, whose own hands seem to choreograph the world around him. Oren shot much of the film in a former East Berlin clinic, its sterile corridors echoing the characters’ emotional detachment. The raw dialogue avoids moralizing, instead letting the imagery — gloved hands, surgical tools, flickering monitors — suggest how control can curdle into obsession.

“Objet a” is the second in Oren’s trilogy about bodies under pressure, following her 2021 debut “Possible Bodies,” which looked at digital avatars and labor. Locarno’s critics noted the film’s quiet audacity, calling it a meditation on agency in an era of engineered desire. Oren says she’s already developing the third installment, which will explore aging and the loss of control. For now, “Objet a” offers a stark reminder: when screens mediate every gesture, the body becomes a last frontier — and a battleground.