IDFA 2024-opening film About a Hero is a detective-mystery that confronts you with AI’s potential: ‘But where is this film going?’

Written by Rafaëlle van Nispen 

Source: About a Hero (Winiewicz, 2024).

This year, IDFA celebrates its 37th edition with over 250 titles across more than 20 locations throughout Amsterdam. The world premiere of Polish filmmaker Piotr Winiewicz’s AI-driven film About a Hero will open the festival on November 14 and will screen in the main competition. There are 12 other titles in the competition, all world premieres. IDFA's Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia says about this edition: “It defends the power of documentary film more strongly than ever." However, About a Hero’s narrative  is fiction, but its style reminds you a lot of a documentary. 

The story of About a Hero

The story centers around the mysterious death of Dorem Clery, a factory worker from the fictional industrial town of Getunkirchenburg. Dorem’s death becomes the subject of an investigation led by none other than legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog, who acts as both narrator and investigator. As Herzog digs deeper into Dorem’s life, he discovers that the 45-year old factory worker had grown fearful of the factory's kitchen machines, like toasters, coffeemakers and microwaves. Haunted by the idea that machines might have dark intentions, Dorem even left notes behind before his death, warning his environment that the machines were somehow able to ‘destroy the future’. 

Source: About a Hero (Winiewicz, 2024).

Werner Herzog

Herzog’s presence in the film gives a new layer of complexity to About a Hero. Winiewicz's choice to train an AI-model with the name ‘Kaspar’ (after Herzog’s The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser), on Herzog’s own oeuvre to create the script, is a challenge to Herzog’s infamous quote:“a computer will not create a film as good as mine in 4,500 years.” Herzog granted Winiewicz permission to use his previous stories as a foundation and allowed AI to speak in his voice. Throughout the film, Herzog’s voice, artificially generated by AI-model Kaspar made me question if I’m hearing Herzog’s true voice, or Kaspar’s? The film doesn’t only use AI to create the narrative, but it’s also the central theme of the story.  

Du Bist Nicht Allein

The film’s first scene begins with Herzog’s voice coming from a whirring tape recorder, the audio crackling with possibly Herzog’s real last words to Winiewicz: “AI will fail; best of luck.” From there, About a Hero dives into the town of Getunkirchenburg, a gray industrial town with emotional bleak inhabitants. The film’s pacing is slow, letting each shot linger, as Dorem’s last days are portrayed through interviews with neighbors and coworkers. The priest at Dorem’s funeral speaks about his struggles with depression and addiction, against a haunting rendition of Roy Black’s song Du Bist Nicht Allein. The combination of slow-paced, eerie cinematography and Herzog’s voice-overs created by Kaspar creates an unsettling atmosphere.

Source: About a Hero (Winiewicz, 2024).

‘This doesn’t make sense’

My own reaction to this film is as mixed as its narrative. About a Hero initially seems to be a murder mystery with AI-generated Herzog guiding the audience through the investigation, but just as I thought that I was getting a detective story, the film takes a hard left to what is to be expected of traditional documentaries, like interviews with artists, philosophers and scientists reflecting on technology’s impact on humanity. The message about the potential of AI is interesting, but the constant switching between the mystery and the big philosophical questions about how we as humans can relate to artificial intelligence felt jarring. Without spoiling too much: the end left me frustrated. I believe one of Herzog’s/Kaspar’s quotes to be a perfect summary of my experience while watching: “Why am I watching this? This doesn’t make sense…” and “Where is this film going? I don’t understand what it wants from me”.