“My Robot Friend”, the film that competes against Miyazaki at the Oscar: we talk to its director

In the midst of a society where isolation is almost the norm, it is not strange that the anomaly is starting conversations or making lasting friendships, as well as allowing ourselves to detach ourselves from those few connections that we manage to establish. As a reminder of our important characteristic of social animals, appears “Robot Dreams” -also known as “My Robot Friend”- a film that is suspended between the ideal of nostalgia and the melancholy of lost love.

“This movie is made for you to call a friend you haven’t seen in years, your mother, someone you don’t know much about anymore, or anyone you shared a story with. “This film demands that you leave the house, the loneliness.” director Pablo Berger emphasizes in an interview with El Comercio.

The plot of this film follows the story of a dog, literally called Dog, who buys a robot to accompany him in that distressing loneliness that they live in New York in the 80s. This bond that develops during a summer will be seen interrupted by an event that will mark the separation of their paths.

“This is a love letter to New York, to a city that I knew many years ago, which was the commercial center of the world, where I was a part, I became a film director and I became an adult, but which no longer exists more than in my memories”says the director, who adapts this work from the graphic novel of the same name by Sara Varon. “The first time I read it, when I finished the novel, tears came to my eyes, I was deeply moved, there I began to visualize those I lost, my parents, my friends and other people, I also began to see this as a movie at the same time. to think that other people will also remember loved ones”adds the filmmaker who believes that films never end, because the viewer can always watch them again to learn different things.

As in the paper version, both works maintain silence as an element that enriches the narrative. “What makes cinema unique is that you can tell stories with images, with this film I feel like a contemporary cinematographic terrorist because I dare to make viewers, even without hearing dialogue, daydream through a sensory experience more than intellectual”explains Berger, who repeats the same formula from his film “Snow White” (2012), but this time he applies it in this first animated film he has made.

Difficult competition

Can it beat “The Boy and the Heron” and “Elements”? Unlike those large productions, one made by an animation house most beloved in the West and East, and the other produced by Disney, this Spanish proposal, which had a limited budget, caused Berger and his team to opt for converting this film in a kind of time machine that, through songs like “September” by the band Earth, Wind and Fire or the inclusion of the Twin Towers in scenes taken from other times, reminds us of past moments.

“Many times I have been Dog and I can see that what happens on the tape is a reflection of what happens today, without a doubt in these moments people feel more alone than in the past, streaming or the platforms that allow viewing Things from home make us more isolated. “I would love to think that with this film more people will come together”mentions Berger, who, consistent with his thought that cinema should bring people together instead of separating them, does not see competitors in the Oscars, but rather great references for his own cinema.

“To make this film I always looked to Japan, both to Miyazaki, who is the master and I am the apprentice, and to Isao Takahata. “This way of approaching the narrative for my film is based on the way they do it, which is why it is an honor to compete with the Ghibli exponent.”says Berger, who also took inspiration from works such as “My Lion”, by Mandana Sadat, “Los Viajes” by Mitsumasa Anno, or “Circus” by Ana Juan.

With two Goya awards supporting Berger ahead of the Oscars, “My Robot Friend” will premiere on February 29 in all theaters nationwide, hoping to convey its main message. “Remembering the people from our past helps us understand that we are the result of those experiences and that, ultimately, we are those experiences.”