• DR.AISHWARYA JS

The paper is a psychoanalytic and literary critique of Fleur Fortuné's 2024 film The Assessment, and it is about a world where individuals are required to go through a psychological process to become parents. While analyzing personal identity and relationship, the study employs the works of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Michel Foucault. The protagonists, Mia and Aaryan create growing emotional and psychological issues because they have to live in the presence of a government assessor all the time, demonstrating how power is capable of changing a person's behavior, desires, and sense of self. While analyzing key scenes and images and how the film is comparable to The Handmaid's Tale and Children of Men, the paper argues that the film demonstrates the serious harms that result from seeking approval from institutions. The film educates the viewer and challenges them to consider issues of autonomy, love, and our fixation with freedom.

Keywords: Psychoanalytic Criticism, Dystopian Film, Surveillance and Power, Reproductive Rights, Identity and Autonomy

"BEYOND THE SURFACE: UNCOVERING THE UNCONSCIOUS IN ‘THE ASSESSMENT’", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 5, page no.h540-h548, May-2025, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2505852.pdf

"BEYOND THE SURFACE: UNCOVERING THE UNCONSCIOUS IN ‘THE ASSESSMENT’", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 5, page no. pph540-h548, May-2025, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2505852.pdf