CENTRESPREAD

Sometime in the not too distant future.

The world is more like Mad Max, and sex is associated with violence in a totalitarian future which sees women presented for the entertainment and comfort of men, courtesy of a magazine run by a computer called Central.

Gerard (Paul Trahir) is a hot photographer who works for Central, the computer which controls this stratified future of sectors and plastic credit - get on a shoot and your sector status goes up.

Gerard's speciality is images of violent sexuality. It's a bit like those old Roman games, he explains - he also quotes Plato, saying he's been making man-made dreams.

The plot largely consists of a series of photo shoots by this privileged, star body snapper. Gerard's first photo session involves a Droog (John Nobbs) as he threatens a nude Bald Lady (Helina Hamilton). Wielding machetes, it looks as if the Droog is about to decapitate the lady, but she suddenly disappears into the fog that saturates the shoot.

Next up is a leather-clad Rapist (Mark Bonnet) who rides his bike past an equally leather-clad Motorbike Girl (Brenda Knowles). The girl pulls out a knife and cuts the man as he rides past, and he falls off his bike, apparently dead. But when the girl goes over to check the body, the man comes alive, strips the girl and rapes her, mauling her breasts with his blood-stained hands.

Then Gerard is told to find a new girl whose freshness will rejuvenate the pages of the magazine - a look for the new century, and to top it off they're running out of time for this new look.

Luckily Gerard meets Niki (Kylie Foster), a nice girl who works in an antique shop - it's history, she says, and it gives her a sense of belonging.

Other photo shoots follow - after an artistic encounter between aluminium foil wrapped models and shattered glass, Gerard shoots the models taking off their make-up (and inevitably their clothes) - but eventually Niki converts Gerard - with the help of her feminine underwear - to the notion of love, and a life away from his cruel work for Central ...

At story's end, Gerard is demoted to D sector to photograph animals, and the young, defiant lovers stand together at Light's Vision in Adelaide, as they devote themselves to each other ...

Gerard is demoted to a lower sector to photograph animals, and he and Niki choose to devote themselves to each other, leaving behind the cruel world of Central.

The ending marks a break from the computer-controlled, exploitative world, as Gerard and Niki reject the pursuit of status and the magazine's violent sexuality. Their decision to leave together symbolizes a reclamation of love and humanity in a dehumanized society. The demotion serves as both punishment and liberation, freeing them from Central's grip and the relentless cycle of man-made dreams for mass consumption.