BERLIN (Reuters) – Alma is a museum curator in Berlin. She is single, and has a taste for men that is a little different but not at all unusual. The solution? Tom, a German-speaking robot with a slight English accent.
This is the basis of Maria Schrader’s romantic comedy ‘I’m Your Man’, which opened the Berlin Film Festival online this year on Monday.
Exploring the free will, compromise and rubbing that requires true love, the film features German stage star Maren Eggert with ‘Downton Abbey’ star Dan Stevens as the robot that she agrees to spend three weeks with her to fund her research.
Schrader, who last year became the first German director to win an Emmy for the Netflix series ‘Unorthodox’, said she wanted to explore the “paradoxes of human desire” in the film, one of 15 competition for this year’s prestigious Golden Bear.
Elegant, and engineered to meet all of Alma ‘s needs, which is very intellectual, Tom begins to talk with all the charm of satnav. But he learns quickly, despite how strong Alma is.
“Alma defends the so-called principles of romantic love, independence and free will,” Schrader wrote. “In his eyes, Tom is just a tool to meet his needs; far from being a true companion, she sees weak weakness. ”
With a light heart and unadulterated entertainment, the film unconsciously revealed the limitations of an online-only format that is compliant with pandemic disease.
Lines that would have been in previous years where critics and filmmakers made their way back into the aisles of cinemas full of the Festival were lucky enough to earn a gentle cuckle from viewers watching a streaming film -into their living rooms.
“It’s a bittersweet,” Stevens said at an outflow news conference, reflecting on the experience of bringing the labor of love to a meaningful lead.
Reciting with Thomas Escritt; edited by Philippa Fletcher