Portuguese Director Edgar Pêra Uses AI to Critique Radicalism in New Locarno Film
Edgar Pêra's latest film, 'Asphalt Guerrilla,' premieres at the Locarno festival, mixing documentary and fiction with artificial intelligence to examine modern radicalism. The director explains he employs AI as a tool to challenge his own concerns about the technology. The movie reflects on the rise of extremism as a symptom of contemporary society.
The film revisits the FP-25, a Portuguese militant group active from 1980 to 1987, adapting a book by member Manuel Ricardo de Sousa, who was lynched after a robbery. Pêra frames the story as a meta-commentary on guerrilla filmmaking, blending documentary, fiction, and AI to blur reality.
Pêra, a veteran of the 1980s DIY "neuro-punk" scene, co-wrote the script with Rodrigo Areias. The production features Jorge Quintela as cinematographer and João Mora as editor, with a cast including Miguel Moreira and Maria Leite. Pêra states the work targets modern society and cinema's current state, employing AI to question his own anxieties about the technology.
The film could influence how artists and audiences perceive AI's role in historical and political storytelling. By using AI to examine radicalism, Pêra may prompt viewers to question the reliability of media narratives and the ethics of technological intervention in documentary work. This approach could reshape debates about AI in creative industries, encouraging filmmakers to treat the technology as a critical lens rather than a mere production tool, potentially affecting public discourse on extremism and media literacy.