The new film from actress and Emmy Award-winning director Maria Schrader (Unorthodox) is a beguiling girl-meets-boy romantic comedy with a provocative twist.
Recently separated forty-something Alma (the effervescent Maren Eggert in her Berlinale award-winning performance) is a research scientist at Berlin’s magnificent Pergamon Museum, and entirely dedicated to her work. Needing research funds, she’s persuaded by her supervisor to participate in an extraordinary study - for three weeks she must live with a human-like robot designed solely to be her ideal companion. Thus, after an exhaustive survey of her preferences, Alma is introduced to the unflappably upbeat Tom (Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens in a revelatory performance), a handsome A.I. creation who’s programmed to adapt to her desires as they get to know each other, making him her perfect life partner. Though thoroughly disinterested in Tom and dismissive of the project overall, Alma discovers that life can take us in unexpected directions...
Sharing DNA with Spike Jonze’s Her, Schrader’s intriguing tragicomedy is a witty and nuanced take on the familiar odd-couple dynamic, questioning love, longing and what it means to be human.
Tuesday 25th May
105 min
15+
Film Festival
