About Autómata (Spain/Bulgaria 2014):
Directed by Gabe Ibáñez and starring Antonio Banderas, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, and Dylan McDermott, Autómata tells the story of sentient robots and a struggle for autonomy and liberation set in a post-apocalyptic near future. The movie has been commended for its stunning visuals and a timely theme posing pressing philosophical and ethical questions. At the same time, Ibáñez work has drawn some criticism for its inability to free itself from its most obvious sources of inspiration such as Ridley Scott's ground-breaking Bladerunner (1982) or Mamoru Oshii's seminal Ghost in the Shell (1995). In spite of featuring a storyline that at times seems to gap over too much and that therefore, in particular in the second half of the film, exhibits some weaknesses that quickly become apparent to experienced viewers, Autómata must still be seen as an important intervention into debates on artificial intelligence and autonomous machines that is worthwhile spending 2 hours on in a proper movie theatre.
The screening of Autómata takes place at Verdensteatret Cinematek on Wednesday Ferbruary 15 from 18:00 (English original with English subtitles). Short introduction by Holger Pötzsch (ENCODE/UIT) and opportunity for q/a after the screening.
About the film series:
CRAFT & ENCODE present is a series of film screenings at Verdensteatret Cinematek on autonomous technologies, artificial intelligence, and changing relations between humans and machines arranged by the CRAFT-research group and the ENCODE network at UiT.
