Fans of – in the best sense of the word – unusual science fiction dishes will certainly remember July 2021 with pleasure. Here two films were shown on the big screen that did not see the genre as a spectacle between gigantic CGI effects or breathtaking star journeys, but focused on the small parts. In addition to the heartwarming romance “I’m your human”, which focused on the love between a relationship-shy Berliner and a highly developed AI, the dystopian thought experiment “The Trouble With Being Born”, which was praised by the official FILMSTARTS critics, appeared here too – and missed gave his (few) viewers a hard punch in the stomach.
Unfortunately, “The Trouble With Being Born” was completely lost in the cinema. If you didn’t have a movie theater near you, you probably wouldn’t have noticed the movie was being released in theaters — or even existed. But that may now change as the extraordinary sci-fi drama is available in rental and purchase versions from VoD providers like Amazon Prime Video for a manageable additional cost. Fans of the Netflix hits “Black Mirror” should definitely check this out. But rest assured: things are definitely more disturbing here!
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That’s what “Trouble With Being Born” is about
Elli (Lena Watson) calls Georg (Dominik Warta) her father, but in reality she is just an advanced sex robot with his daughter’s memories. They experience warm summer days together, swim in the pool and tan in the sun. It is not clear whether Georg has already done this with his daughter, who immediately disappeared from his life.
Elli, the android, seems to be gradually attracted to voices of distant and unseen forces that separate her from Georg. In the darkness of the forest, she will not only meet other people, but also experience a kind of self-confrontation that will enlighten her about who she is – and who she could be…
A painful experience
If Michael Haneke (“Das Weiße Band”) had directed “AI Artificial Intelligence”, “The Trouble With Being Born” probably would have been made. Director Sandra Wollner has not only adopted the formalistic rigor of a Haneke, but also poses some extraordinarily exciting questions on the subject of being human. In this case, of course, still interacting with existence as a machine. Answers come up that not only hurt, but also have an effect for a while. The official FILMSTARTS review gave it 3.5 out of 5 points:
“The dark drama, enriched with bits and pieces from horror and sci-fi, comes across as a warning message from a wrongly programmed simulation world, as an advanced and therefore more abominable version of Steven Spielberg’s ‘AI – artificial intelligence’. Flickering, electric, disturbing. A scattered signal, not easy to decode.”
“The Trouble With Being Born” is especially impressive because Sandra Wollner can’t resist the abyss. With what is only her second feature film, the director goes where it hurts. Based on the work of Philip K. Dick (who, for example, provided the template for Ridley Scott’s Work of the Century “Blade Runner”), Wollner examines whether humans function solely according to patterns attached to them before birth. or that the soul itself is but an appendage.
But not only does “The Trouble With Being Born” have a lot of discursive potential, it’s also reminiscent of the aforementioned Netflix hit “Black Mirror,” as the review says: “You think of ‘Black Mirror’ with an Austrian accent. Only with a greater will to confuse and disturb. An irritation that mainly stems from the idiosyncratic shape. This structure that keeps pushing the viewer away from simply absorbing the plot, combined with subtle shocks and disgust.
So if you’re looking to take on another real tour de force that’s challenging but also offers a bit of intellectual enlightenment, be sure to give the sci-fi insider tip “The Trouble With Being Born.” The mix of anti-Pinocchio, body horror and “AI” with “Lolita” tapes has it all. But it is worth it!