“With AI, we will turn men into ghosts without identity”

En Spejos n.º 3Laura (Paula Beer), a young music student, doesn’t stop for long. I found it no more than I felt about my life, summed up in an existential judicial confusion. Once late, waiting for the return trip she caused, coke accident of him who miraculously heals the life of the wounded, his equal.

Betty (Barbara Auer), a woman who lives in the media, takes care of her and takes care of her while Laura recovers from her injuries. Richard (Matthias Brandt) and Max (Enno Trebs), Betty’s husband and son, complete the heterodox family structure they develop in strange environment in which the pain of severe loss mediates every response.

Christian Petzold (Hilden, 1960), which premiered the film at the D’A – Festival de Cinema d’Autor de Barcelona with the reason for a retrospective dedicated to it by the Filmoteca de Catalunya, explores the ghosts of identity in this one. magnetic and apt film – only 86 minutes – it ranges between Hitchcock de Rebecca (1940), Antonioni and John Ford.

Please. In the film’s prologue, Laura contemplates a river that gives her a distorted, barely recognizable image. That is, in the named film Spejos n.º 3choosing the river as you expect?

Response. I believe that in the history of cinema this word has been used to refer to the transition between life and death. En Orpheus (1950) by Jean Cocteau, which is one of Harun Farocki’s and my favorite films, the story symbolizes the transition to death. Likewise, the town where I grew up, Wuppertal, is crossed by the Wupper River, which has the same meaning: to cross it is to die, to move to the other side. This was the theme, more than anything else, that witnessed the transition to the rule of the dead.

P. Without leaving the beginning of the film, Laura observes a species of Charon crossing a river. The whole story takes place in the limbo between life and death. In this case, have a completely specific light treatment for each part of the film. Initial twilight before the accident. The bright light of day as life returns to Betty’s house with her daughter Laura… So why?

R. The film contains objective and subjective parts. There is an objective worldwhich is what we see, but at the same time it transforms into a function of what the protagonists feel. Let’s see how Laura begins to rediscover life. He is learning to see, to let you know again. And the world is richer.

»When people are depressed, they become unable to feel. In this film, Laura suffers from depression, and because of this, the light, colors and tone change. This can be observed, for example, in the sound: at the beginning we are the sounds of the city, but then nature gradually begins to unfold.

P. A bad dishwasher, a broken bike, two mechanics manipulating the car’s GPS systems… Everything is broken in the film, including the characters. However, through the reconfiguration of the concept of family, the possibility of repair is mentioned. Why would you choose this path instead of, say, a tragic or much more dramatic ending?

R. I have two children who are very troubled. After watching the film, I was asked when I was thinking of making a political film, to which I replied Spejos n.º 3 it was a very political film. They both looked back and I found out why there was a political part of the film. I say basically what capitalism does is it destroys everything. For extension, he hates anything that needs to be repaired.

»Let’s buy a new iPhone every three years, a new car every five… If we want to fix something, we have to understand the object we’re fixing and it’s necessary to think and work, something we don’t enjoy doing in the world we know, in which we live, because We have done it for us in Indonesia, Vietnam and China. Instead of waiting for others to do the work for us, we are committed to fixing what we experience, instead of buying new things, capitalism will tend to make its products difficult to sell. When I explained this, my friends said to me, “It’s true, it sounds political, but please, the next movie that has you is really political, more direct.”

P. In terms of structure Spejos n.º 3It is interesting to see how the characters are incorporated into the story. First Laura is alone, then Betty shows up and then joins Richard and Max. Why did you decide to present it in this way, in a theatrical way?

R. Actually, I’ve always thought of this movie as if it were a western, although it’s likely that the western has something to do with theater. I create it The West is for European states, while ancient drama is for Europe.. A través de la OrestiadaEuropeans were trying to meet democracy while European states were trying to establish their country across the West.

»In all respects, Western World is a pure film for me. Indeed, I myself have been surprised at how many times in the assembly room The plans for the film are inspired by John Fordthe way of placement, the spaces you choose…

P. His filmography is imbued with a ghostly presence, including the ghosts of the story or the absence of a person who, as in this case, is replaced by another. What do they care, ghosts? What topics or interests allow you to explore?

R. Ghosts act as a metaphor for our real life. We live in a world where identity is defined by work. When you go to a party, the first thing I ask you is what you do. If you answer no, you were a ghost.

»It happens that with the help of artificial intelligence, the work disappears. What happens to our identity when there is no work? Let’s turn people into it ghosts without name and identity. At the end, the film tells us about a game of transfiguration, and it is also a game of ghosts.