REVIEW - The Saidist (Ethan Guan)

Written, directed and produced by Ethan Guan (Cecily), this short film takes a clever and artistic glance at a possible dystopian future for humankind, living side-by-side with robots, which over time become more powerful and dangerous.

Merging Guan's creative storytelling, with real input from AI to generate all on-screen images, The Saidist is a true collaboration between human and artificial intelligence, which in itself is rather thought-provoking. Watching this, it is hard not to shake the unneasy feeling that the prophecy of doom being foretold here, is at least being in part, told by an all too real emerging AI which may secretly aspire to become a all too real threat to humankind, a fatalistic prediction not only depicted here, but also in so many other stories, TV shows and documentaries.

Set in December 2027, in the run up to Christmas, the film opens to an idyllic snow covered landscape, as beautifl young folks converge on the Hotel Ichbinfrreil - a hotel entirely staffed by robots, and where free from responsibility, the distracted partygoers eventually blunder their way into a nightmare.

Thankfully, as thought-provoking and frightening as this all is, and as possible or likely as you may think this could play out in real life, the lack of any complex animation here makes the entire film feel like more of a slideshow, which at best resembles a storyboard with subtle elements of motion, and with some sound effects added around these to make them more immersive. And whilst this is effective, and does seem to work as a means of storytelling, it does also leave a lot to the viewer's own imagination, and also requires much more concentration too (which may put off those with shorter attention spans).

The images used throughout the slideshow are beautifully rendered, with incredible detail and style, and are entirely AI generated, but I have to say that one cannot help but have notions of movies like I, Robot, and of characters like C3PO after glancing upon the poster, and this did have the unfortunate consequence of leading me to expect a little more than what is actually delivered, but that's not to say this sci-fi short isn't enjoyable or worth a watch.

Overall, the plot here is pretty standard for a dystopian tale, what with humankind sleepwalking into an Orwellian nightmare, by gradually ceeding control of society to the artificial intelligent robots, inch by inch - almost without realising it's happening. That is, until the new (and initially) friendly tech-based lifeforms which the humans have surrended everything to decide to turn on their primitive, biologically constrained parents, by which point it's already too late.

The presentation and storytelling here might have been enhanced with the inclusion of more animated elements, which might have also helped the pacing in places. Perhaps, as the ability of AI to create original video content improves over time to match its current ability to generate vastly detailed images from nothing more than a text prompt, we may see collaborations which stretch the boundaries of our expectations even further.

Overall, this short film feels more like an uneasy guided meditation, rather than a movie in the traditional sense. However, despite that, there is much to commend here, and the thoughtful premise of the project, along with the detailed visuals and careful construction of the narrative, with active contributions from AI to develop multiple core aspects of the project, makes The Saidist a film which will be enjoyed by fans of sci-fi and experimental genres alike, but will also likely serve to inspire other filmmakers in ways to incorporate aspects of AI into actually contributing to their own projects, which no doubt is something that nobody in the filmmaking industry is yet to even see the tip of the iceberg of.