Non-human characters experiencing human emotions.

Set in a New York City atmosphere from the 80s, a story begins to unfold silently for the protagonists, yet it overflows with emotions for the viewers and those experiencing the creation of these movements. There’s a conversation that flows uninterrupted and doesn’t require words to be understood. It’s based more on a feeling we all have in common: the pursuit of love, happiness, security, and a certain stability that we find when we decide to experience life accompanied by someone with whom we can show ourselves exactly as we are in all the ways we’ve encountered.

Although this film, “Robot Dreams,” leaves the theme of love and intimacy open as something not exclusive to couples, but also leaves a door open for us to see the possibilities of experiencing love and the freedom to be ourselves, also in friendship. Personally, I believe I see love already from a universal perspective, where I understand the degree of intimacy and its differences regarding the romantic, but I also experience opening up to loving those I call friends.

Just like with my family members, there’s a relationship that unfolds, and with the presence of communication in it, there are openings that allow us to see the other person in their essence and feel love and gratitude for the opportunity to share life.

The setting in which this story unfolds is a New York I haven’t had the chance to experience yet, but through the nods stored in popular culture, I can recognize it, and this makes me feel inspired. The transparency with which the emotions of its characters are shown is a reality that nobody wants to talk about from the reality in which I observe the movie, at least not directly.

I believe that every human being deserves the opportunity for self-realization in every possible aspect of their life. When one can catch a glimpse of themselves and the world, they can decide from that awareness if they want to share their life with another human being and open space for that other person to share their life from their own individual narrative, seeking to create a union. But what happens when, in that journey of self-discovery, we close ourselves off to the possibility of experimenting with others? What occurs when in that trial-and-error process, we have the opportunity to see ourselves through others and learn what we truly want in terms of where and how we want to interact with others, and what relationships we seek to build and experience?

It’s easy to want to go out and seek the friendship of others, and we often look for similar interests to have something familiar to start from. However, when we’re in a friendship, it seems we always guard the idea of a character to avoid vulnerability with the other person, fearing they might withdraw or fearing they might see us for who we truly are. I always stay true to myself in any interaction. I understand there are different forms of relationships depending on the reason for the need for them, I’m always myself. In doing so, I also check if these people truly see me and allow themselves to be seen truly as well.

To experience true reality, you have to be real, speak from where you know who you are right now, and share if you feel confident about where you want to go or who you want to become. I believe experiencing love is falling in love with the realities that people share about themselves and how they see life from their own perspective. Personally, I don’t seek to relate to people from a specific group or interest; I’m always open to encountering different perspectives because I find it exciting to have the opportunity to meet all kinds of people and to choose in a shared conversation who those people are with whom the relationship develops and endures.

The decoration of the dog’s apartment feels familiar; the structured landscapes seen through the window are a clear reference to the color palette of most adults as they enter this stage of life. As a new user of the United States’ experience in my own conversation and an additional one that feels shared, I can see how the idea of a user experience from the current era is revealed. Regardless of the years back in which this comic by Sarah Varon is set, which was adapted into a movie last year, the scenarios remain relevant, and the authentic state in which the experience of current life is perceived is also preserved.

Because, no matter where we go as individuals or in groups, there is a crucial part in our lives where we have to face ourselves head-on.

For the dog, when this happens, it’s on a typical night of his life, where he’s eating frozen food, watching something on TV, and observing in his own presence how life feels so routine. He pauses for a moment the next day to observe the smiles, the faces of the other animals outside, and how most seem to have a certain complicity with each other. Then he returns to looking at himself and observes that there’s no one beside him to share those views.

After seeing an advertisement on TV, he decides to order a robot. Once assembled, the robot comes to life and seems to be his accomplice in the everydayness of the life they now share.

The dog is excited to show himself and life to his new companion. This one seems to have a consciousness of his own, where he’s open to follow the dog wherever he goes, without even questioning his own limits as a machine or the differences between them. There’s simply a current that connects them both and makes their union possible.

Until one hot day at the beach, the robot stops moving. Due to the difficulty of its mobility, the dog has to leave it behind on the beach, hoping to find a solution as soon as possible to get back to that stream where they existed.

And this is where everything becomes extraordinary because the dog enters a stage where he desperately tries to recover the robot. The outside world seems to stop happening for him, and his sole focus is to regain that stream where he could coexist with the world and himself in a peaceful, exciting, and happy way. The world seemed like a completely new place to experience because there was someone nearby with whom he could be himself, and everything seemed possible because having the robot nearby made him feel safe.

The robot, on the other hand, begins to experience a series of lucid dreams where he prepares for the encounter with the dog and reconnects to that shared reality. I think the times we feel alone in this life are not due to a lack of people out there but rather a lack of people who truly see us, understand us, and love us for who we really are, even in the clumsiness of self-discovery.

After several days that turn into months and experience the changes of the seasons, the dog takes a pause to think logically and decides to return to the beach for the robot when it reopens. So the dog decides to continue his own internal conversation expressed towards life, and even with fear, he goes outside to experience. It’s interesting how, with just a decision to dare to be something different, even with fear from that time he bought the robot, this also meant an opening of a before and after, where the dog, on his own, began to make new decisions to seek a shared experience.

The robot, still in its metal state, couldn’t remain intact in the elements, and many things beyond its control happen, to the point where life and its movements merge to redirect it elsewhere. It is here where, even with the hope of a reunion with the dog, it begins its own narrative with itself about the user experience of the world around it, and even with its memories and uncertainties, it stays alive.

The disorganized material of something that once took the form of a robot ends up in the hands of a curious individual who, in the development of their own being, extends their interests towards life. In this way, they find the pieces and reassemble a new physical style of the robot. With its mobility recovered and now from a certain form of self-awareness, it returns to the recovery of what it knows as life. Without dwelling on the past, it opens up to the reality happening right now. It is here where, from the naturalness of its being, it shares new experiences with a being that doesn’t really need it in its life, but from that self-realization of itself and its life, both find a connection and develop it with beautiful naturalness.

And just when it seems that, from different directions, both the dog and the robot continue with their lives, there is a moment where the robot, from afar, sees him again. It creates this scenario in its head of how that reunion would be, how that recovery finally from where they had left off, and everything seems like it would continue its course. But then it wakes up and opens a decisive line where it has to choose what is most convenient for itself. The dog seems to be with another robot, which makes it clear that he bought another companion but with the lesson of learning to care for it and what he learned from the previous robot.

Then we have Robot, who returned from the debris of a nearly destroyed physical existence and now shares his life with someone where he feels that, by choice and decision, that narrative is shared. It is there where, in his clumsiness of developing his own consciousness, he chooses himself and accepts everything that happened in his past to reach the point where now, on his own, he can decide how he wants to develop his own user experience.

In the analysis of both narratives, including the shared one, the most extraordinary thing about this film is that it has no words from its protagonists. But the emotions it conveys make me land it in these my own words. It makes me understand the difference between choosing the other from loneliness and the difference of doing it from consciousness. This applies to any type of relationship because, at this point in my life, I think love is universal, and it is an energy so inexplicable and true that it is that light that illuminates the entire universe. From that first awakening when everything stopped being black for the first time and opened new forms of life under that light that is still in development but is growing and will one day illuminate it completely.

The importance of taking the experiences of our lives to the point where we are for questioning and integrating those answers into self-knowledge. From those experiences, those we have had with our family, friends, and each of the social interactions that have surrounded us, but the most important, those intimate relationships where they have created a before and after of ourselves. The importance of all these interactions and their forms to open a line of consciousness where we know how to choose who we really want to be with and what are those forms of shared conversations that we seek to experience.

Also, the importance of letting go of everyone and everything that has been in our lives as a visitor, of whom we do not know if their ticket has a return date to wherever their life redirects, or if that ticket has no date written yet, or perhaps there is no return ticket. The truth is that we will never really know about the other and their permanence in our lives, but we do have control over the decision of when to leave or stay, and it is our own stay.

One of the greatest tests we have regarding true love is when we let go, when we let go and wish the best of fates with good energy for those we choose to let go, and who choose to also let go of our lives, and we are grateful for that crossing over in our lives. For everything and everyone we encounter in this life comes to show us something, whether it is something we need to work on, heal, or simply someone with whom, finally, in the freedom of being who we are, what we want, and in the constant self-development and growth of our individual selves throughout the different stages of our lives and in the creation of who we truly are, we choose to open ourselves to see the other and create a union, where both choose to stay and make each other happen in respect for their individual movement and the ways that are now shared. Where the world continues to seem like an exciting place where every morning we feel inspired and excited to go out and experiment.

I feel that the dog could not find this self-awareness from where he chose to have company, and remained in a constant repetition of something he did not want to face or see. But I feel that, against all odds and in the limitless idea of the invention of its existence, the robot developed a consciousness that remained pure and honest to the end, so much so that it sacrificed the idea of what was once familiar and known to it, for something completely new and unexpected. And it did it out of true love for the dog and out of respect for the decisions the dog made in the continuation of its life narrative.

“Robot Dreams” had its world premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2023, in the Special Screenings section. It received critical acclaim from critics and won the Best Film award in the Contrechamp section of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and the Best Independent Animated Feature award at the 51st Annie Awards. It won the Goya Award for Best Animated Film and the European Film Award for Best Animated Film and was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 96th Academy Awards.