About a Hero
Piotr Winiewicz / Denmark / 2024 / 84 min
A hallucinatory crime mystery where an AI version of legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog must solve a suspicious death - all based on a script written by an AI.
Legendary German filmmaker Werner Herzog has created some of the most incredible films in cinema history across documentary and fiction. So what happens if you ask an AI to ‘watch’ all his movies and write a script that Herzog himself could have conceived? The answer is: ‘About a Hero’. A film adaptation of an AI-generated script inspired by Herzog’s own work.
When factory worker Dorem Clery dies under mysterious circumstances in Getunkirchenburg, ‘Herzog’ travels to the town to investigate. Some moments are so absurd that only the real Herzog could have come up with them. From a non-verbal witness statement to a sex scene with a toaster.
In between, artists, philosophers and scientists reflect on the concepts of originality and authenticity in the modern age. Werner Herzog once said that a machine will not be able to make a movie as good as his own for the next 4,500 years. Perhaps he already has to eat his own words?