"I am manufactured for the bloodthirsty people, I am the rivers tumbling into the poison oceans.”
Confessions of Johnny Barcode takes place in a post-democratic state where aspirations of the individual are ruthlessly suppressed. Although the overseeing power remains unnamed, the film makes reference to political issues including East Timor, and New Zealand social welfare reform.
Constructed in rapid-fire montage and often soaked in apocalyptic orange, the film also features dashes of absurdist humour; a giant model hand emerges to drag unsuspecting human workers out of shot, while hobbies of the mysterious I.A.N are identified as 'farmyards' and 'mating'.
