“Computer-generated images will cost millions of dollars. I spent $2,000. "The Dream of Violet" is a piece of artificial intelligence -- or the future of film production?

Next week, a groundbreaking 75-minute film about Iran's brutal repression of anti-government protesters in January will be premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. It is known as The Dream of Violet and is based on news reports, video clips and eyewitness accounts. "I would like to say that 80 percent of them are a re-emergence of what really happened," said Ash Koosha, an Iranian British director. But the dream of violet is a fiction, not a documentary: a drama about a group of strangers involved in protests meeting in an alley. How did Koosha make a play about killing in less than six months?

It turns out that the answer is to use artificial intelligence. Every image and role in "The Dream of Violet" is created by artificial intelligence. According to Kusha, he created these roles by describing their appearance and drawing on those he had known in the past. He said that it was too dangerous to have a human face in Iran. “As a result of security problems, the role is not safe, even if it is somewhat similar to someone.”

The novelty of Violet Dream is that it is the first fully artificially intelligent real-person film to be recognized at a major film festival. This is part of a wave of crowds: last month, the A.I.A.D. Adventure, The Hell Raar, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival — though not in the official competition for the festival. An all-arto-intellectual animated film called "Where the Robot Grows" was released in 2024. However, the dream of violet seems to be the first artificially intelligent film to gain the credibility of art and commentary — Koosha — saying that this does not mean using artificial intelligence to make things easier. “Many traditional festivals simply do not want to touch artificial intelligence. They don't even want to talk about it. I realize no one wants to be first."

Kusha is talking to me at a café near the offices of the Guardian in the King ' s Cross. He was born in Iran and lived in London for almost 20 years. His career began with bands and performances in Tehran, where he was imprisoned for two weeks in Iran's maximum security prison for organizing music festivals (“we are playing the song of the Arctic Monkeys”). When he moved to London, he continued to make music. He was also a technology entrepreneur and co-founded with his brother, Pooya, an artificial intelligence start-up company called Clarid. In 2018, he developed an artificial intelligent singer named Yona, who can create and perform music herself. "It was super sci-fi." He also co-founded the Fuuntain 0 studio, which specializes in the production of artificially intelligent films.

Kusha said he had never been political before. This changed in January of this year, when he watched videos from Iran in social media before the Internet blackout. “72 hours, we saw terrible things. It was a massacre." Some estimated the death toll was over 30,000.

Something broke down inside him. “It makes me politicized. This is where I draw the line. I thought: You know, I'm gonna make the first movie about this. It's time to use technology to keep something alive." He spent two and a half months making the film, at home at night, while continuing his day-to-day work as Chief Executive Officer of Clairerid.

The script wasn't created by artificial intelligence, but he did use the chat machine. People Claude. To improve the language and build his ideas. He said that the genius of working with artificial intelligence is that filmmakers can change their minds at any time and push the plot in a completely different direction: “You just have to open another session. You don't have to worry you're rewriting. You can increase your imagination until something hits the right place." He also created a mix and edited the film without using artificial intelligence.

In his next AI project, Koosha plans to use real people to create roles. "Because now you can authorize real faces." Does that mean that actors are not participating in this film after selling their role? "They can play. They can share the financial benefits of movies. I believe that this will be a new world of opportunity for people. Especially facial and image clearances."

I asked how the acting was. An actor trained by Rada with 20 years of experience might protest that they brought more than a face to the movie. “This is a very correct point of view, and I think there are stories I will never allow artificial intelligence to touch, but we still need to do it in a dramatic way.” He said that the film he made with artificial intelligence was "an impossible film, a film that required $300 million in budget, and it could not have happened on this planet."

Koosha says it's not possible to bring the violet dream on the screen in a traditional way. "If you want to do it with the CGI, it'll cost millions of dollars. I spent less than $2,000." He also noted difficulties in raising funds and in pre-production. “It may take one or two years to do so. The idea of making a film at the speed of the news itself is of great interest to me."

He also saw the role of artificial intelligence in the production of films that looked like large studios, while the cost was only a fraction — removing barriers to independent filmmakers. “The minds of independent filmmakers are often more fresh and creative than those of industrial filmmakers. It seems to me that most of the 100 million-dollar stories should be told through the camera of an independent filmmaker."

He believed that artificial intelligence could democratize the industry. "I'm thinking of the next Jodulovski," he said, "I'm talking about this crazy Chilean filmmaker. “How many years do they need to prove themselves at some bourgeois festival to get a $2 million budget? I believe that the new space will be separated from the old space. These people will start doing interesting things."

Critics of artificially intelligent films think it's soulless bullshit. But Hollywood directors, such as Steven Soderberg to Lon Aronovsky, started to get involved in artificial intelligence. Last week, Gareth Edwards, the director of Jurassic World Rebirth and Bandits One, described the generation of artificial intelligence as a “genius” tool for filmmakers, although Guillermo del Toro stated that he “will rather die” than use it.

Koosha says he usually doesn't like artificial intelligence movies. "So far, I hate anything made with artificial intelligence. It makes me sick. I don't want to see it. It gives me a headache." He also had no confidence in the others at the scene. “They want people to get used to garbage. I'm in the middle, trying to be the voice of reason. I use artificial intelligence. I'm an artist. I tried not to use it in a rude way." He added, "I'm not selling artificial intelligence. I just want to tell a story with a tool."

Koosha personally dubbed all the characters in "The Dream of Violet" and then modified them with artificial intelligence -- to make one sound like a 20-year-old woman and the other sound like an older man. Other artificially intelligent film producers are using an actor who says, "Every team will develop its own way," he says.

I asked if the audience would accept artificial intelligence. "I'll give you a stupid example. You see Rick and Morty? Sometimes when Rick regrets, my feelings get very deep. But Rick doesn't exist. We want Rick to exist because we feel the same way. Pixie movies make me cry."

Koosha is convinced that Fuuntain 0 will create jobs. “There are many new areas that are largely unknown. I promise that this company will create at least 200 jobs that were previously non-existent.”

The lightning-like change in artificially intelligent film production means no one knows how it will disrupt film production. I asked Koosha what he thought of the industry in 10 years: "Well, I don't think Christopher Nolan would make another $300 million movie. Selling a $200 million to $300 million movie will no longer make sense." He paints an egalitarian picture of the flourishing mini studio: "Every filmmaker will be a studio." Creativers will work in newly created jobs and share profits. “So, I think there will be a reorganization of funds in the next 10 years, hopefully in a better way. Artificial intelligence will be a catalyst for this change.”