Alberto Gastesi shoots his second feature, Singular
- Patricia López Arnaiz and Javier Rey star in the sci-fi thriller that tackles the very hot topic of artificial intelligence
The San Sebastian filmmaker Alberto Gastesi, who made his feature film directing debut in 2022 with Stillness in the Storm [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alberto Gastesi
film profile] (premiered at the Basque Film Gala at the San Sebastian Film Festival and also screened at the Gijón and Transylvania film festivals, among others), is currently shooting his second film Singular on location in the community of Madrid and the Basque Country. It is a science fiction thriller similar to iconic titles in the genre such as Ex Machina [+see also:
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making of
film profile], A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Arrival.
It stars Patricia López Arnaiz (Goya-winning actress for Ane is Missing [+see also:
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trailer
interview: David Pérez Sañudo
film profile], and recently seen in the films Nina [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Andrea Jaurrieta
film profile] and 20,000 Species of Bees [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Estíbaliz Urresola
film profile], as well as the series Galgos [+see also:
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series profile]) and Javier Rey (Silver Biznaga at Malaga Film Festival for Not the End [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] and known for the series Cocaine Coast, who has just released La mujer dormida), accompanied by the young Miguel Iriarte in his feature film debut.
Written by the director together with Álex Merino, the plot introduces Diana (played by Patricia López Arnaiz), an AI specialist who travels to her old summer house by a lake to meet Martín, her ex-husband (Javier Rey), whom she hasn't seen for twelve years. The initial harmony is shattered when they are joined by Andrea (Miguel Iriarte), who bears an uncanny resemblance to the couple's late son. Diana then begins to suspect that the enigmatic young man is actually part of a larger plan.
According to Alberto Gastesi, "artificial intelligence has come into our lives earlier than we thought, as often happens with what we associate with the future and makes us rethink our place in a world where our cognitive abilities are surpassed. Science fiction underlies this thriller not in the image, but in the look. Are we replaceable? A question that today takes on an inescapable place and beats at the heart of our film. The Turing test that Deckard used in Blade Runner as the crucial test to discern between human and replicant has also been broken. It is now insufficient, and a great conceptual mirror test is needed, which we will have to invent and that Singular proposes to tell from a cinema of actors, faces, traumas that emerge and reflections of the human spirit, whose defence is the driving force behind this project," he concludes.
Singular –which won the 2019 Sitges Pitchbox and was selected at the Spanish Screenings in Malaga and at the I+P Ideas to Produce of the Galician Cluster – is a film from White Leaf Producciones and Vidania Films with support from the ICAA, the Basque Government and the Community of Madrid, and the participation of RTVE and EITB. Its international sales are managed by Film Factory.
(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)
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