Users

Starting from an experience of motherhood, the intrinsic flaws of the human and the unfailing excellence of the computer, Natalia Almada envisages, in the form of a dystopic essay, her children’s future in a technological world. Will they love the infallible machines more than they love her, their imperfect mother? Somewhere between shock and awe, images of spectacular beauty are intertwined—the ocean crossed by fibre optic cables, the forest in the grip of embers, automated greenhouses, or the eyes of an owl reacting to the light—, giving an account of a world where technology crops up in every nook and cranny, where screens punctuate children’s daily lives, where “perfect” nature, constrained, becomes terrifying—an approach at times reminiscent of that of Nikolaus Geyrhalter. Sensorial and deeply lyrical, Users succeeds in expressing the intimate and the unspeakable, and broadens the discourse to an inevitably wider and socially contemporary perspective. Resolutely distancing herself from any pedagogical ambition, the filmmaker delivers a powerful personal film, the visually striking sequences of which will long remain ingrained in the memory.

Emilie Bujès