Have you ever asked yourself what will happen if a robot controlled every aspect of your everyday life? Or if one day, instead of being policed by actual humans, you might have a robot pull you over? Norwegian director Tonje Hessen Schei answers these futuristic questions with their highly informative documentary iHuman, screening at this year’s Victoria Film Festival.
We are, arguably, entering a time where filmmakers will have to focus on making movies that convey impactful, substantial messages rather than bombard us with stylistic overtures found in movies such as those in, say, the Transformers franchise. What iHuman does so well is tell an intelligent story about both the good side and the bad side of today’s—and our future’s—artificial intelligence machinery while exploring the role this technology is going to play in our future.
One of the many areas where the movie shines is its filmmaking. Throughout the documentary, numerous faces known throughout the tech world show up and give us a look into what, in their scientific opinion, AI is today and what it may be capable of in the near future. Schei’s filmmaking style is very inventive when it comes to finding ways of conveying iHuman’s very fascinating themes to its viewers—this keeps the audience entertained throughout.
iHuman is a well-crafted film that expertly depicts its important themes of where artificial intelligence is taking us, and also all of the good, the bad, and the ugly places it could lead our society to.
Victoria Film Festival
Various times, February 5 to 14
Various prices
victoriafilmfestival.com