Rachel Maclean's DUCK is a daring deepfake short that follows Sean Connery’s unravelling after he witnesses Marilyn Monroe’s return from the dead. Set within the instantly recognisable world of a British spy thriller, DUCK’s main protagonist, a deepfake Connery, plays out a role he knows all too well: collecting clues, wrong-footing assailants, and eliminating the femme fatale, only to find that not all is what it seems. Monroe is the glamourous siren and a thorn in Connery’s side; unlike him, she understands the power that comes with being just an image—an appropriation of femininity and sexuality largely defined by men—and she uses her endlessly shifting image to her own manipulative gain. Borrowing elements from classic Hollywood, video games, film noir and sci-fi, DUCK flips the spy genre on its head. Instead, Rachel presents a self-aware film set within a world of alternative facts, one that raises compelling questions about truth, conspiracy and power.

DUCK is unique in entirely using deepfake technology - an artificial intelligence technique that manipulates audio and visual content to simulate real people and events - to ‘resurrect’ the actors. The artist plays each of the characters’ roles herself, often performing in a style deliberately unlike the original actors. Like many of Rachel’s films, DUCK explores the fragility and malleability of identity, the slipperiness of reality, and the ramifications of gender-based power dynamics.