Human won best science fi at the LA Film Awards and I can see why – like the best sci fi there’s a very human story nestling in this tale of lost robots.
A young woman called Anna comes across a functioning human-sized android in a junk-filled warehouse and befriends him. She reads to him, teaches him to dance and shows him pictures of the outside world on her iPad.
In return he shows her videos of his creator Mari explaining his development. He can’t go outside as his charger flex isn’t long enough (by this point I was so moved I was tempted to pop to Robert Dyas for the world’s longest extension cord but luckily Anna and Mari found a better solution.)
Paradoxically there’s shades of The Day The Earth Stood Still in the android’s look, but here its not the earth standing still but the robot.
Sci fi themes are usually universal – they’re rarely really about silver suits and circuit breakers, and Human is no different. This android has a life so limited it might as well not be a life at all, created then left behind. But someone comes in who is willing to take a chance on him and expand his horizons.
My only complaint is that the actresses playing Anna and Mari the scientist took very alike – it would have been clearer if they each had a different look. Having said that I really enjoyed the film – Anna is brilliant and the android looks terrific, realistic but ever so slightly homemade (I just knew the scientists behind him were going to be British) without being too eggbox-and-sellotape. Check out the trailer for Human below.
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