FREYA IS HIGHLY INTELLIGENT

We are a hop, skip and jump away from when this film Freya is set.

Rhona Rees as Jade

Alexa and Siri can pretty much do anything you ask it to but it is not at the level Freya is where she asks how was your day at work? Freya, whose voice is played by Elysia Rotaru, is a Federal Regulated Enquiry and Yield Assistant that is at the beck and call of a young woman named Jade, played by Rhona Rees.   Imagine a sophisticated, intelligent and ahead of its times virtual assistant at your side almost like having a virtual Alfred if you were Bruce Wayne.  Jade is no superhero but uses the services of Freya without noticing her dependency on this form of artificial intelligence.  From director Camille Hollett-French and screening at this year’s Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival, Freya is a film that makes you question the state of our existence and where it is headed.

For Jade it’s simple, she can do whatever she pleases without the use of her phone but through a Minority Report-like screen that pops up in front of her or by just simply talking to Freya.  Whatever she wants to be done is all by a click of a button by the side of her ears which resembles the buds that we use today.  She can order food and alcohol and find out how bad her hangover is the next day and what she needs to replenish her system.   She can get sex whenever she pleases by sifting through a bunch of candidates and can even get a tally of scores of how well she or her partner performed sexually.  This short film quickly becomes a body horror when Jade starts to take life for granted and is thrown a big curveball because of her overuse of Freya who she sees as her friend and confidant.

Director Camille Hollett-French‘s film Freya is witty yet challenges the status quo on technology and the government control of our use of it.  When we become too comfortable and nothing is out of reach and conveniently under our nose is when trouble becomes apparent.  This is where information is rendered to the powers that be and where they can control your state of affairs.  Beyond the algorithms of suggesting and pitching, virtual assistants are a smokescreen to the authoritarian dystopia that corporations and governments seek to transparently build. The film comments on that narrative furthermore by showing that not only our brains are being controlled but our bodies as well.  This is a different type of body horror that is suggested by Camille Hollett-French where the parasites that are feasting on us are not monsters or creatures but rather the government and technology.  Freya is so ahead of its time that this short should be labelled as a smart film.

www.camillehollett-french.com