Subscribe for €30 and get one-year access to the 70+ films in our streaming library. This supports not only our magazine but also the filmmakers we represent.
+10K
Pol Gasco Robles, a slick Spanish adolescent, presents himself in flashy neon light as the protagonist of this documentary portrait. The wall of his bedroom is decorated with photos of luxury holidays, expensive villas, and flashy Lamborghinis. If it glistens, it’s something to aspire for. For Robles, material luxury is not a by-product of success, but a goal in itself. Anonymous voices in podcasts or YouTube videos assure him that he will get there through mere manifestation. On the cracked screen of his smartphone, he checks his trades. The balance stands at $406.68.
Robles is enchanted by the golden mountains that tech capitalists and crypto bros promise him online. It is easy to dismiss such a hollow can-do mentality as naïve, but Hernandez portrays his situation with nuance, employing a visual language that reflects the current zeitgeist.
A 3D scan of Robles’ bedroom transforms into a web of binary digits and cables, an AI model falters to bring his dream villa to life, and green screens place him in his favourite car. She asks him critical questions whilst the camera rolls, pushing him towards introspection, even though he never quite gets there.
I was very interested in understanding how artificial intelligence works. There are statistics that sum up the average. If we had to measure humanity’s dreams of success, it would appear in the form of a mansion in Miami. I found this tool interesting as a kind of mathematical reincarnation of a collective imagination. It is true that AI’s immediacy and accessibility in image creation are a giant step towards the exhaustion of imagination. We are losing the ability to dream, to imagine.