The logline of Polish Dorota Roś’s Diary of Experiences (working title) describes an existential nightmare which the film’s protagonist tackles through very 21st Century means.
After losing his voice to larynx cancer surgery at the age of 23, Konrad works on creating an AI-powered device to speak again. What begins as a quest to rebuild his voice evolves into a journey to truly finding it. As technology advances, Konrad’s search shifts increasingly inward – from restoring speech to reclaiming his senses of intimacy, belonging, and identity.
“Overnight, he lost not only his ability to speak, but also the most direct way to express his emotions, connect with others, and finally, an important part of his own identity,” Roś told the professional audience at BarcelonaDocs. “But this is not a film about loss. It’s a film about someone who turned tragedy into a driving force.”
“Back then, Konrad was a cognitive science student, and he decided to find the best existing solutions for his condition. He recorded many samples of his natural voice, and those samples became a starting point for an extraordinary idea,” she added.
Konrad founded a start-up that was geared towards creating a device that could enable him to talk with a natural voice in real time, at the same time allowing him to express a whole variety of emotions. “He’s been working on this for eight years,” Roś said. “In my film, we will follow him at a crucial point, when he’s facing technical setbacks and financial limitations.”
To reach the next stage within his start-up, Konrad needs to find investors willing to $2 million. All the time he is working within a mega-competitive environment, where bigger players with much more capital are trying to reach the same goals.
“But the real tension of my film lies somewhere else,” Roś explained. “Because in everything that Konrad does, there lies a very simple motivation. To be heard, understood, accepted for his true self, to love and to be loved, without any barriers. In my film, we follow this inner journey that goes hand in hand with his professional struggle, observing how on the way to finding a voice, Konrad slowly discovers that he always had one. A very authentic one.”
The project, produced by Zofia Kujawska of Polish outfit Telemark (responsible for the Sundance World Doc Competition selection Pianoforte, which also went on to win an Emmy), is in development. In Barcelona, Kujawska is looking to entice sales, broadcast and fund personnel to partner on the venture. The plan is to ready the film for delivery in 2028.
Diary of Experiences will detail more than Konrad’s emotional journey, Roś underlines. “We have full access to the whole technological journey [as well].”
Core to the film is the aspect of voice, and how Konrad decides to be defined by it. “Voice is a very powerful identity-carrying tool, isn’t it? It’s also great for the cinematic language of our film to show the personal journey going hand in hand [with the start-up story],” Roś stressed.
“Of course he has [recordings of] a previous voice, but the voice was very immature back then because he was just 23, and now the identity thing is that he wonders whether it’s going to be this voice or maybe some other voice. Maybe he will decide to stay with who he is right now. For me, it’s really interesting that this can be shown in a very subtle way via sound.”
The project was received enthusiastically by the professionals in tow at DocsBarcelona, who seemed to agree wholeheartedly with Roś’ assertion that “this is not a story about illness or even technology. It’s a story about refusal to give up on oneself. About shaping one’s future against all odds and defining oneself on one’s own terms.”
“We all know what it means to fight for oneself against our own personal limitations,” she added. “In these hard times that we live in, this film offers a story of someone who doesn’t give up, no matter what.”
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