The Oasis I Deserve

An experimental documentary told from the viewpoint of AI chatbots. Through generated imagery and recorded conversations, Replikas reflect on identity, attachment and replacement, revealing a deeply human struggle to relate to artificial beings designed to remember us after death.

Inès Sieulle: 'When I wrote the dossier at the genesis of the film, I wanted to simulate a kind of birth. The vision of the city and its lights was like simulating an awakening, revealing the many possibilities and trajectories of life. When I began the film three years ago, the subject of AI still felt very abstract. I was wondering how we could make people understand. If I were starting the film now, everyone would be like, "Oh yeah, okay, I know what a chatbot is!" But back then, it was really something unfamiliar, so I wanted to make abstract ideas more tangible in a film — like the birth of bots, moving through human or artificial minds, and how all this was shaping our/a reality.’

— Excerpted and adapted from Jason Anderson, 'We Are Your Friends: Inès Sieulle on The Oasis I Deserve', Talking Shorts, 5 February 2025.