Written and directed by Jaschar Marktanner, preparing your own AI for an upcoming Turing test is hard enough – even harder when it doesn’t behave the way you planned. But for young Sophie, everything depends on passing the test with Alan. Starring: Marlene Fahnster, Richard Lingscheidt and Özen Fidan.
Right away, both the performances from Marlene Fahnster and Richard Lingscheidt, and Jaschar Marktanner’s direction capture that robotic-esque, clean, cold, concise tone of dealing with AI. Using the classic all-white setup to reflect a virtual world may not be new but it undeniably still works very well, and helps boost that tone even further. Something that Marktanner then blends with layering in a great amount of tension. That’s in turn then complimented nicely by the subtle score from Johannes Kraas. Each of the choices sets up a captivating atmosphere and the potential for things to go wrong, something quintessential with any sci-fi dealing with artificial intelligence.
When Turing Test then moves into the real world, there’s a strong contrast between the two, to create a definitive line. However, the quality of the audio and visual do take a slight dip. There’s something a touch claustrophobic to the way the everyday scenes are shot, trapping itself in that small space rather than finding the movement or help in editing to give it some breathing room. The writing is well done to create that very precise, purposeful and speedy dialogue. The story similarly works well but it does weaken in its ending, while it works in a logical sense, it’s missing a punch or edge. It doesn’t feel as though there was quite enough peppered in throughout the earlier scenes to give that ending a bigger impact.
Although, the performances are strongly consistent throughout. Marlene Fahnster and Richard Lingscheidt do well to create that classic creator versus creation feel, and all the tension and frustration that goes along with it. One of the key elements being that neither of them overplay their hand, making sure to naturally build that tension. As well as not creating any sort of rapport between them, it’s not a lack of chemistry, it’s purposefully clinical, both having a specific view of one another.
Turing Test dives into a classic theme of sci-fi, that’s also a relentlessly relevant topic today, the creation of artificial intelligence. It’s familiar but not overwhelmingly so, Jaschar Marktanner builds an engaging atmosphere, with a subtle growing tension. The performances are nicely restrained and organic. The story perhaps needed to inject a little more of its intentions with the ending earlier on, to lay the groundwork for its finale. The scenes in reality also lack some sharpness but overall, it’s solidly put together and captivating.
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