Biopolitics and Bare Lives: The Control of Reproduction and the Female Body in Contemporary Film Narratives

Abstract

This paper analyzes the biopolitical control of the female body and reproductive functions through the lens of the theoretical concepts of Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben. Special attention is given to the analysis of four selected audiovisual narratives which, although fictional, are deeply rooted in socio-political reality and biopolitical regimes of power: the television series The Handmaid’s Tale (four seasons, 2017–2022, created by Bruce Miller), the film Children of Men (dir. Alfonso Cuarón, 2006), The Official Story (La historia oficial, dir. Luis Puenzo, 1985), and Parallel Mothers (Madres paralelas, dir. Pedro Almodóvar, 2021). Through detailed narratological and discursive analysis, the paper explores the ways in which women and their reproductive power are presented as spaces of biopolitical surveillance, control, and resistance. The focus is on various modalities of institutional and systemic violence, including forced pregnancies, restricted access to abortion, loss of parental rights, and the ideological reshaping of motherhood. The selected films and series are analyzed not only as aesthetic and cultural artifacts but also as active participants in the construction of social narratives about the body, power, and the right to choose. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the paper highlights the capacity of contemporary film to function as a medium of social critique and reflection, while simultaneously creating space for feminist theoretical articulation of resistance.