Plastic Surgery - A Short Film by Guy Trevellayn

This very short film, only about 13-minutes, packs quite the wallop in that brief time as it makes a horrific statement about microplastics in the human body. The film focuses on a young pregnant doctor, played by Anna Popplewell, who is working her last shift at hospital before heading out on maternity leave. She gets a call into surgery where she removes a plastic fork from a man's rectum (don't worry, it's not too graphic.) Then, amazingly, she gets called into surgery again and removes a wad of plastic waste from a man's stomach, and then a plastic water bottle from a woman's throat. Then, with quick cuts of her repeating similar procedures over and over again, the film makes its point through exaggeration about the ubiquity of plastic in humans. Microplastics are never mentioned; instead a few lines appear at the end of the film indicating that they have been found in human blood and in the water we drink and the food we eat. The film does not offer a solution; its goal is to get people to think and themselves work on a solution. And the doctor? The viewer is left to decide about the fate of her surely plastic contaminated baby; that's a metaphor for the need to change things for the sake of future generations. We have all read about microplastics in the news; after viewing Trevellayn's film most will not be lackadaisical about the issue.

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