Artist and filmmaker Julian Rosefeldt creates elaborately staged films that investigate the power of language and the conventions of cinema as an allegory for societal and individual behaviors. With the multi-channel film installation Euphoria he continues this examination by exploring capitalism, colonialism, and the influential effects of unlimited economic growth in society.

On the surface "The Swap" appears to parody a scene from a classic gangster film of covert dodgy dealings, yet Rosefeldt's manipulation thrusts it into contemporary reality. Set at a deserted container terminal, two rival mobs pull up in cars, about to perform the familiar briefcase exchange of concealed goods. Clad in leather, guns poised; Rosefeldt plays once again with our stereotypical expectations, luring the viewer into a sense of familiarity until an unpredictable turn challenges our perception and exacerbates seemingly subtle aspects of their behaviour.

Part-thriller, part-nightmarish examination of the widening gap between originality and technology, The Removals imagines where we go from here. A secretive, nefarious agency seeks to control the culture. They do this by covertly staging reproductions of everyday events, and by so doing, undermining the moment’s originality and currency. Society is then left to puzzle over what might be real, and what is fake. The agency employs symbols—like the fascists, like imperial powers of the past—notably a red cone, to plant their flag upon the moment. Two agents, Kathryn and Mason, exhausted by the toll each removal has taken from them, quietly, and then overtly, set out to undermine the agency. Haunting, engaging, and with a ferocity of vision that calls to mind the cerebral thrillers of Shane Carruth, David Lynch, or Andrei Tarkovsky, Nicholas Rombes’s directorial debut is a spellbinding new work and apt analogy for the wormhole where modern social communication leads.