At film fest, Robot Mom weaves a twisted story

By Pragya Singh
Day two of Asian Women’s Film Festival organised by the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT), was held with the screening of movies from around all of Asia spanning from fiction to animation.
The 18th edition of the Asian Women’s Film Festival was held at the India International Centre in New Delhi.
The audience watched attentively as the session films explored themes like Triple Talaq and myths on diseases.
The session ‘Envisaging Futures’ was a riveting one that featured four short films. The films revolved around AI and sci-fi. ‘Robot Mom’, an Indonesian film directed by A J Kelly, stood out for its fresh storyline and plot twist.
Set in 2030 in a world dominated by AI, it follows a teenage-girl Sisca, who seeks to exchange her mother for an AI version who would be ‘more efficient and caring’.
“My film explores the idea that in a world where AI dominates everything, could a mother too be replaced?” Kelly said.
‘Robot Mom’ was greatly applauded by the audience.
“The VFX was surprisingly good for a student film with no Budget,” Hemant Kumar, a student of Bennett University said. He said that it is films like these that remind us that it does not require an enormous budget to make good films.
The films that ranged from Philippines to Azerbaijan, also gave the audience a peak into the traditions of other countries.

Bennett University’s Times School of Media is a key partner in the 18^th IAWRT Asian Film Festival. Its students are playing an important role as volunteers and rapporteurs.

(The writer is a Semester IV student of BA (Journalism and Mass Communication) programme