Marc Isaacs' new film, 'Synthetic Sincerity,' is a curious, intriguing, semi-sincere affair that leaves viewers wanting. It is an odd, shallow piece of work about artificial intelligence that is itself exasperatingly artificial, a self-aware docudrama hybrid.
A Fictional AI Lab and Real Characters
Isaacs is, or rather pretends to be, licensing the vivid characters from his previous acclaimed documentaries to a fictional AI research lab called Synthetic Sincerity at the fictional University of Southern England. The goal is to train the lab's software in creating AI human figures on screen. The lab's research staff are played by actors, including Lebanese independent film-maker Lynn El Safah.
Isaacs has amusing scripted conversations with a disapproving AI avatar, whose face is digitally modeled on Romanian actor Ilinca Manolache from Radu Jude's 'Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World.' However, the film does not show the process by which Manolache was approached and her face transformed into an AI figure.
Creating an AI Version of a Real Person
The supposed point is to create an AI version of an exiled Uyghur man named Ablikim Rahman, who really does exist and runs a restaurant in London. The ostensible grounds are that the resulting AI figure will be able to say therapeutic things that the real person couldn't. This premise seems patronising to the dignified and intelligent Rahman, but perhaps it is another fictional conceit.
We see the image of Rahman's face on screen, speaking candidly about his emotional challenges. This is ostensibly an AI image, though it seems a lot more real than the Manolache face. El Safah then gets into made-up trouble with her university employer for speaking to a Uyghur person when the university is so dependent on Chinese money, as well as for her anti-Israel views.
An Unsatisfying and Insubstantial Work
Isaacs' work is much admired, but this film is unsatisfying and insubstantial. 'Synthetic Sincerity' is in UK and Irish cinemas from 17 July.
