The Last Spark of Hope

It's a Polish movie, and truth be told, I haven't seen many of those, but the trailer looks pretty good. What made me chuckle was that the robot looks conspicuously like the cute robot from the "Short Circuit" movies I watched and loved when I was a kid. The Russian translation of the title actually names the movie "The Final Short Circuit". Not sure if this is an inside joke or the director was a fan of the movies, or there were spare "Short Circuit" robots lying around in Poland, but here you go.

The scenery looks a bit like the Fallout game, so not too bad either. Not bad for a low budget sci-fi flick.

I think the critics must have been influenced by the trailer and expected some action packed blockbuster. If you love Star wars et al and love your sci fi full of flash then please steer clear of this movie.

The world's population has been decimated ( as usual ) and we are left with a lone girl and her guardian robot.

The robot's AI is as you would expect. Totally devoid of any humanity. Unfortunately for the sole surviving human she discovers that the robot, while adequately protecting her, may not necessarily be acting in her best interests. I have never seen a movie like this and only ask that you do NOT watch the trailer.

The film's subtitle (at least in Polish distribution) is: This may be based on a true story. I'll come back to this at the end.

Let's start by saying that this film was made on the budget of a school play. If you're expecting "Star Wars" or Nolan's pseudo-scientific bells and whistles, this is absolutely not the place for you.

However, if you enjoy good dystopian cinema (Garland's style) and are passionate about human rights, this film is absolutely shocking.

The director turned its biggest drawback (budget) into an advantage. Almost the entire film takes place around a sheet metal barracks on a patch of scorched earth.

The film tells the story of a woman who may be the last human on Earth, and certainly the last within range of a radio and a car. She's accompanied by a military surplus patrol robot (read: a robot designed to shoot refugees at the border during climate wars). Until one day, due to a minor error, the protagonist can't confirm her authorization, and since she's not the Administrator, the robot must guard the camp's border.

This film is filled with dialogue that examines current migration policies (or rather, the lack thereof, the construction of walls, and human rights violations at borders) in many countries around the world.

The film maintains a high level of accuracy right up to the very last scene. To put it mildly, the ending is literally mind-blowing. And the film's title only becomes clear at the very end.

And after the film ends, you realize how disturbingly close to the truth the director was when he subtitled it, suggesting that in the future, this film might be inspired by a true story.

It's definitely more of a moral treatise than science fiction. And no, this isn't a film about a robot: it's a film about us and our xenophobia. If you've seen the film, you probably have nothing to do with xenophobia, but you see how much of it there is.

I generally like this type of dystopian film and thought I'd give it a try, accidentally stumbling upon mention of it. I even had to go to the trouble of translating subtitles from French to English to understand it, an endeavour that turned out to be well worth it.

To me it highlights the danger of strict dogma sweeping the world. Rigid unbendable rules and beliefs that can be very flawed in reasoning and premise. Whether these be artificial intelligence or human the effect is much the same.

My review is deliberately sparse so as not to spoil the watching, but if you can look past the low budget there is a great film underneath.