“My Robot Friend”, an animated film without words but full of emotions

Silent cinema is the protagonist of the weekend in theaters: “My Robot Friend” is an animated film, devoid of words, which represents one of the most original and interesting visions of the last few weeks at the cinema.
The director is the Spaniard Pablo Berger, a decidedly eccentric author in the style of his films, who tackles animation for the first time with this film set in New York in the 1980s.
The protagonist is a dog who suffers from loneliness, spending his evenings alone on the sofa at home, eating comfort food and playing video games. The solution to finding company lies in purchasing a friendly robot with which you will create an increasingly stronger friendship. At the end of a few hours spent resting on the beach, however, the robot stops and the two risk having to be separated forever.

Pablo Berger returns to the language of silent cinema with which he wonderfully juggled in “Blancanieves”, his most beautiful and important film, dated 2012 and winner of 10 Goyas, including best film. In that case he adapted it in a gothic key the famous novella by the Brothers Grimm, rendered in live action following stylistic methods typical of the twenties of the last century, while in this case it opts for a very simple animation without great creative ambitions, but still effective and capable of conveying all the dreamlike side (the original title is “Robot Dreams”) that this feature film offers.

Quotes from the past and brilliant ideas

“My Robot Friend” is a film full of brilliant ideas, especially in its dramaturgical construction where the twists and turns are constant, especially in the continuous transition from dreams to reality in which we spectators end up getting lost too. Growing as the passes minutes, with the exception of a few redundant passages in the central part, the film reaches a very remarkable final part, capable of touching deep emotional chords to the point of being able to move. It should also be highlighted how Berger enriches his work with quotations that go to the past of the Seventh Art, from the completely explicit ones in “The Wizard of Oz” to some more veiled ones, such as the Vertigo effect used by Steven Spielberg in “Jaws” and recalled in a sequence on the beach in which the protagonist robot dedicates to a series of amazing aquatic stunts.

Presented at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and awarded at the Annecy Film Festival, “My Robot Friend” is one of the most significant animated films of the season and also deserved an Oscar nomination in its category, in which, however, it rightly won Hayao Miyazaki’s splendid “The Boy and the Heron” triumphed.

Tatami

Another surprising title is “Tatami”, a co-production between Georgia and the United States, directed by Guy Nattiv and Zar Amir Ebrahimi. An Iranian director and an Israeli director thus sign this film which combines thriller, sport and political cinema. We are halfway through the Judo world championships, when the Iranian athlete Leila and her coach Maryam receive an ultimatum from the Islamic Republic, which he orders Leila to fake an injury and lose, to avoid being branded a traitor to the state. With her freedom and that of her family at stake, Leila is faced with an impossible choice: obey the Iranian regime, as her coach Maryam implores her to do, or continue fighting for the gold. “Tatami” tells an individual story to make a decidedly universal reasoning, centered on the struggle and resistance against a despotic regime that deprives its citizens of the freedom to make the choices they would like. Thanks also to a good pace of editing, the film succeeds to excite and launch numerous food for thought, enhanced by an elegant black and white photograph that demonstrates the formal attention of the entire operation. With the exception of a few overly didactic moments, “Tatami” is undoubtedly a successful product and worth seeing , which also confirms the skill of the actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi, here in her first attempt as a director. The Iranian interpreter, winner of the Palma for best actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022 for “Holy Spider”, is now one of the most famous faces of Middle Eastern cinema and in this case too she gives an intense performance, as much as that of the surprising protagonist Arienne Mandi.