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The Substance

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3811 BP Amersfoort
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Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), the star of an aerobics show, doesn't stay young forever either. Elisabeth is fired on her 50th birthday because of her age. When she returns home, her morale at its lowest, she receives an unexpected proposal. A mysterious laboratory offers her a miraculous "substance": if she injects it, she will become the best version of herself: younger, more beautiful and perfect.â

Of course, you can't pass up an offer like that. In its new form, Elis...

Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), the star of an aerobics show, doesn't stay young forever either. Elisabeth is fired on her 50th birthday because of her age. When she returns home, her morale at its lowest, she receives an unexpected proposal. A mysterious laboratory offers her a miraculous "substance": if she injects it, she will become the best version of herself: younger, more beautiful and perfect.â

Of course, you can't pass up an offer like that. In her new form, Elisabeth goes through life as Sue (Margaret Qually). She is instructed by the mysterious supplier of the "substance" to switch bodies every seven days, without exception. This means that back switched she faces her older body again. No fun, her insecurity only increases during these periods. Sue becomes Elisabeth's replacement. She soon becomes famous. During the periods Elisabeth is shackled to her own body, she becomes increasingly paralyzed by low self-esteem. While she is Sue, she increasingly wants to abuse the "substance" and remain Sue for long periods of time. Hatred and envy begin to grow between Elisabeth and Sue; two versions of one and the same person. Due to abuse of the "substance," Sue's body begins to fall apart backstage. Elisabeth does not let this happen, with far-reaching consequences.

The Substance is a film about women's bodies. How they are scrutinized, fantasized about and criticized in public spaces. Women's bodies are shaped and controlled by the desires of those who look at them. The world around us, in commercials, movies, magazines and displays, shows fantasized versions of ourselves. Always beautiful and always thin, young, and sexy. We come to believe that we have to be that to be appreciated. No matter how well-educated, opinionated, and independent women may be.

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