Connecting three very different worlds, Bellum – The Daemon of War shows the impact of advanced technology on societies across the globe: the world of smart weapons manufacturers, the world of increasingly obsolete military operatives and the world of victims. The stories are each presented within a visually stunning, provocative and lyrical essay that raises philosophical and ethical questions about an inevitable future.
Fredrik Bruhn works at Unibap, an AI and drone technology manufacture in Uppsala, Sweden. He develops systems which he sells mainly to government entities. We see him as he is about to present a latest invention in the USA, where it will be used by defense organisations. He is very much aware that the smart technology he works on is used for military purposes, and that he might be creating ‘Frankenstein’s monsters’. “In 2050 AI will surpass human intelligence”, he states as a fact, not a possibility.
This is a bleak scenario for people like Bill Lyon and Sweed, two American veterans living in Nevada, USA, near a drone operations and training base. Sweed served in Vietnam and Bill was a contract soldier in Afghanistan, memories of which he treasures, even after seeing and experiencing atrocities. The two fill their days reminiscing, shooting in the desert and visiting the aptly named bar Oasis, the only entertainment facility in the area. Bill is a realist: he knows his restlessness stems from a violent and traumatic experience in his youth and he needs his wife to help him remain sane. What’s more, he needs to suppress an urge to return to the war, for the money and the feeling of being alive amidst death and danger.
Paula Bronstein is experiencing that very life, an established photographer living and working in Kabul where she documents the consequences of both Fredrik’s and Bill’s work. Her pictures contain a lot of corpses, loss and sadness, but also hope and resilience – embodied in her photos of members of the People’s Peace Movement. We see her searching, eyes fixated on pictures for her exhibition ‘Afghanistan Between Hope and Fear’, eventually shown in a polished gallery, literally and figuratively a thousand miles away.
Images and their use are key to the film. Fredrik is working on technology which will be able to create the perfect images of the places where his drones will be targeted, mainly border areas and war zones. The circuit boards he’s working on carry uncanny similarities with aerial shots of cities that the drones observe from above. His aim is to create the technology which makes it possible to distinguish libraries from weapon factories, and to give drones the capability to make autonomous decisions, based on incredibly precise information.
The need for humans within warfare may one day be obsolete but the question is raised: who will then bear the responsibility for what is so euphemistically called ‘collateral damage’? As Fredrik says: “Technology is dead and can never be guilty of anything.” But will technology be able to every host feelings of guilt such as Bill is carrying?
Bill together with the other veterans who need pills, alcohol and brawling to keep the horrific images in their head from taking over, keep their frustrations in check, and numb the guilt. “We didn’t destroy the buildings, we just destroyed the people”, Bill says with some pride as he compares his responsibility to that of the drone operators hidden in a windowless bunker behind the fences in his backyard, who once every now again “get permission to fire a missile”.
And of course Paula, who makes a living, creating images – she is trying to keep the Western world she comes from connected to this forgotten war zone by finding a vestige of beauty or warmth or hope in the destruction.
Alternating between the AI-developer, the war veterans and the photographer, the documentary paints a nuanced picture of exactly what sets humans apart from artificial intelligence. We see the bond between Fredrik and his adolescent sons, who dream of travelling to nearby stars in the future, and his love of techno music and philosophy. We observe Bill’s gratitude to and adoration of his wife who saved his life, his appreciation of the beauty of nature and his decision to settle down and “act like normal people”. We see the compassion in the eyes of the visitors to Paula’s exhibition as they connect to the pain of their fellow humans overseas.
Narrator Johannes Anyuru (Swedish poet and author) puts it all into words, using the mythical story of Christmas night in the WW1 trenches, when soldiers from both sides put down their weapons to celebrate. Unlike technology, humans are burdened with a “reluctance to take a human life”.
Bellum superbly depicts a modern 360-degree dilemma that is caused by ever increasing technological know-how; the way it affects humans, but also the untouchable and unexplainable components which will forever set humans apart from even the most advanced robots.
Meanwhile, we get to learn about and appreciate the protagonists, as we follow them into their daily lives and dreams. The film does not try to shock or to point a finger of blame. Rather it bravely acknowledges that humans are humans who make mistakes, create beauty, take lives, invent incredible technology, have ambitions and experience epiphanies. It is an intricate work of art that still makes you feel some optimism for technology and its future, because there will always be a place for humanity.
Sweden, Denmark, 202, 97’
Directors David Herdies & Georg Götmark
Narration written by Johannes Anyuru & Mercies
Narrated by Johannes Anyuru
Editors Ida Bregninge, Kristoffer Nordin,
Cinematographers Ellish Hallin, Georg Götmark, Camilla Skagerström Jörgen Lindskog
Music Krister Linder
Produced by Momento Film
Producers David Herdies & Michael Krotkiewski
Co-producers Axel Arnö (SVT), Peter Possne (Film i Väst), Helle Faber (Made In Copenhagen)
With Bill Lyon Fredrik Bruhn Paula Bronstein
Supported by Swedish Film Institute, Danish Film Institute, Nordisk Film & Tv Fond, Creative Europe Programme – Media of the European Union, Lindholmen Science Park, The Swedish Art Council
World Sales Deckert Distribution
