Country: Denmark, Germany, USA
Year: 2024
Duration: 85'
After a local factory worker named Dorem Clery dies under mysterious circumstances, Werner Herzog travels to Getunkirchenburg to investigate his perplexing death. But Herzog, our narrator, is not who he seems, and the film is not what we expect: About a Hero is an adaptation of a script written by an AI trained on Herzog’s body of work. The fictional narrative it produced, ironically self-reflective, is intertwined with a series of ‘real’ interviews with artists, philosophers and scientists reflecting on the notion of originality, authenticity, immortality and soul in the age of AI.
Biography
film director
Piotr Winiewicz
(Poland) is a Copenhagen-based Polish artist, filmmaker, and scenographer. He is a graduate from The Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where his diploma film On High in White Tomorrows was awarded the Wurdigung Prize. About a Hero is his debut feature film. His work focuses on blurred lines between reality and fiction.
FILMOGRAFIA
On High in White Tomorrows (cm, 2015), William Quail’s Pyramid (2023), About a Hero (2025).
Declaration
film director
“In 2016 I remember reading an interview with Werner Herzog who, speaking about technology, said that “a computer will not create a film as good as [his] in 4,500 years”. It stuck with me. Not only did it make me wonder how the world will look in 4,500 years, but it also made me contemplate our human sense of superiority and how that inherent sense of superiority is reflected in our deeply rooted technophobia. Technology is such a big part of our lives, infiltrating our most intimate lives. Yet it remains a love-hate relationship. But if algorithms analyse and study our intimate relationships, what would happen if we reverse this process and let technology try to mimic emotions? Would this process evoke emotions back in the audience? Could we really tell the difference between man-made and machine-made? And if not what are the possible consequences? Ultimately asking, are we as complex as we think we are?”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: Piotr Winiewicz. SCREENPLAY: Kaspar*, Anna Juul, Piotr Winiewicz. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Emil Aagaard. FILM EDITING: Michael Aaglund, Julius Krebs Damsbo. MUSIC: Lasse Aagaard. SOUND: Peter Storm Wich. CAST: Imme Beccard, Vicky Krieps, Willi Schlüter, Steffen Böye, Ida Beccard, Bernd Tauber, Claudia Harder, Bianca Rusu, Ramona (Momo) Stueckemann, Thomas Ebert, Christian Preuss, Mathias Max Hermann, Axel Schlimme, Anna von Auersperg, Figen Fener, Michael Fyrst Rasmussen, Genc Jakupi, Michael Davies, Tina Hermes, Stephen Fry. PRODUCTION: Mads Damsbo, Rikke Tambo Andersen, Sam Pressman per Tambo Film, Pressman Film.
CONTACT: The Festival Agency ma@thefestivalagency.com
