Eye on Juliet Directed by Kim Nguyen
Eye on Juliet
Directed by Kim Nguyen
Starring: Joe Cole, Lina El Arabi, Faycal Zeglat, Mohammed Sakhi, Hatim Seddiki, Mansour Badri, Mbarek El Mahmoudi, Amal Ayouch, Soumiya Abdelkader, Hassan El Ganouni
Year: 2017
Country: Canada, France, Morocco
Author Review: Roberto Matteucci
"We need threats, they are our job."
The remotely piloted aircraft system (rpas), or simply the drones, have acquired an increased effectiveness in wars but even more in espionage, in tough jobs, in targeted eliminations.
In the United States, there has been a strong discussion to remove the control of drones from the CIA and pass it on to the direct dependencies of the army.
The operation is simple, the plane, without military, moves undisturbed on the skies while some boys with a joystick in their hands observe a great screen, driving the vehicle, looking and striking.
Other element, they do not have pilots and consequently the costs are lowers and there are no any possible of human losses. However does not eliminate interdependence between robot and men:
"... the drone is not able to perform tasks autonomously, but in fact, it is an extension, a long arm of the human body controlled by a specialized operator anyway." (1)
A boy is also Gordon, from Detroit he works as an observer of a pipeline of some rich oil company, in some Arab country.
Gordon is the character in the film Eye on Juliet, directed by Kim Nguyen at the 74th Venice Film Festival.
While Gordon is in a comfortable office, his eyes are in the remote Arab landscape through a spider robot. Nothing sophisticated. It is a small android, already seen in many films, it moves with ability, silently, hiding in the ground in the desert. Inside it has some inserted cameras, which repeated the images on Gordon's video.
The story starts in the United States, a couple is quarrelling outside a nightclub, nothing serious: a love story is ending in a noisy way. Gordon is the guy, he reacted badly, therefore, the bodyguard thrown out him with strong manners.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean there is Ayusha, a beautiful Arab girl. He works in an office similar to Western Union. Ayusha's family is very traditional, they want her to marry an old man. Parents are planning the marriage.
Ayusha is strongly opposed, even if her love is a young man without a penny and without work.
This contrasted love forces them to have some furtive meetings in the desert, near the oil pipeline. Gordon sees them first casually then he becomes an obsessive voyeur. In his screen, he begins to take an interest in this unlucky love story, as if it were any soap opera.
And as a structured love story, the sequel is heart-wrenching and touching.
A linear film, clean despite the story takes place on two different continents. It is a current film on the future realization of artificial intelligence. The author on this topic is partial:
"... on the one hand we relate to technology and on the other, we want human contact. And the latter is increasingly difficult to obtain, is it not? "(2)
I would say no, technology can help, it is a sign of modernity and of course, it scares conservatives. The film teaches us how it can even save a girl to flee to Europe.
The director's philosophy does not belong in either Gordon or Ayusha, but it is the subjective of the spider robot. When there is the Gordon close-up we understand a resemblance between his big eyes and the robot's camera.
Unfortunately, the director makes a banality in the end. An error committed for the absence of the robot. Without the aid of an artificial machine, he relies on people's feelings and narrates an insipid blind date.
(1) Roberto Alfieri, L'invasione dei droni, Il futuro è sopra di noi, Hoepli Editore, Milano, 2015
