ROBERT (THE ROBOT)
Aaron Lucas
Germany / France / Belgium
In a disconnected world, a 28-year-old loner builds a robot to have a friend to talk to, but the robot unexpectedly finds fame when the world realises he is a really great listener.
SYNOPSIS
In an imagined near future, everyone wears augmented reality lenses except Oliver, whose lenses are being repaired. Finding it impossible to communicate with any other person, he builds a robot out of junk metal to talk to. But when strangers, yearning for connection, mistake the robot for a quiet guy called Robert and his silence for attentive listening, they offload their problems onto him and feel instantly relieved. Suddenly, Oliver must fend off herds of fans desperate to be therapised and fight to keep the only friend he has ever had.
INTENTION
Augmented Reality, AI Chatbots, the Metaverse... Where will all of this new technology lead? What will happen to our relationships and the way we communicate? In the last 10 years it seems that the popularisation of social media, technology that was sold on the promise of bringing people together, has ended up isolating people more than ever before. Just take a bus ride in any major city. The ability to be anywhere at any time has disconnected us from the people and the world around us. At the same time, the “self help” industry is booming. People are feeling disconnected and are desperate for a way to treat it.
Enter Robert. A mute, junk metal robot that gets mistaken for a human who simply sits, looks you in the eyes and appears to listen. In this absurdly lonely, disconnected world, where people are desperate to be listened to, Robert is an oasis, a spiritual leader, an addictive drug.
Our film is an absurd comedy, a cautionary tale and a biting satire of the loneliest generation to have ever existed.
DIRECTOR
Aaron Lucas
Aaron Lucas is an Australian-German director based in Berlin. After training as a theatre director, Aaron began to make comedy films that fuse the absurd and surreal with the mundane. His pilot episode for Privileged won Best Comedy at SeriesFest 2021. In 2022 he took part in the TIFF Filmmaker Lab to develop his debut feature film.
PRODUCER
Valentin Leblanc
Upon graduating from Sciences Po Lyon in 2014, Valentin Leblanc moved into the film industry right away, first with the Chicago International Film Festival, and then with various productions in France and the USA, before going into consulting and production. He founded Black Boat Pictures in 2017 with the aim of developing emerging international directors and to build new synergies.
PRODUCER
Delphine Duez
Writer, location scout, development, production and distribution manager, Delphine Duez has been exploring the film industry since 2008, following her experiences in design, fashion and music. A creator of connections and a talent hunter, she now sails between Belgium and France to bring about the Franco-Belgian synergies initiated by White Boat Pictures, the little sister of Black Boat Pictures, launched in 2019.
Genre
Absurd Comedy, Satire
Length
18 min
Language
English
Co-writer
James Wright
Shooting location
to be defined
Production companies
Black Boat Pictures (France), White Boat Pictures (Belgium)
Estimated budget
€155.000
Looking for
Coproducers, Sales, Distribution