Mechanical Love (2007)

by Phie Ambo

Mechanical Love is a documentary which portrays people who have a close relationship with robots.

In Japan we meet Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro who has been named one of eight living geniuses in the world today. He is working on creating a perfect robot copy of himself in order to investigate what constitutes a human being and if it is possible to program the human soul. Will his daughter be able to love the robot copy of himself? In Germany we meet Frau Körner who is completely in love with Paro, her robot baby seal, but her friends are not as enthusiastic about her furry friend as she is…

Phie Ambo seeks to highlight our need to love and be loved, and through the main characters, she examines how we accept emotional robots in the East and the West.