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German Competition 2022
Filmstill Uncanny Me
Uncanny Me
Katharina Pethke
What does it mean for our perception of the world when virtual duplicates of ourselves can be made to look so deceptively real that human being and avatar become indistinguishable?
Filmstill Uncanny Me

Uncanny Me

Uncanny Me
Katharina Pethke
German Competition 2022
Documentary Film
Germany
2022
45 minutes
English,
German
Subtitles: 
German, English

Do computer-generated figures now look as “real” as “genuine” humans? For 26-year-old Lale, this question is not only exciting in theory, but in practice. She works as a model but would rather spare herself exhausting shoots by getting an avatar. But when she has taken the first steps towards “doubling” herself, she has second thoughts. What does it mean, in actual, legal and moral terms, to bring a virtual duplicate of oneself into the world?

Katharina Pethke accompanies her young protagonist on this process. The intellectual game turns into a test on the living subject, a weighing of possibilities and fears. What does it mean for our perception of the world (and for documentary film, too, of course) that the promise of reality of visual media has long since become a gradual one? In the age of omnipresent self-dramatization, deepfakes and extended reality, we are embarking on a journey to our joint (media) future. It’s no coincidence that it ends at a place that already inspired Plato’s ideas on reality and its shadows.
Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Katharina Pethke
Script
Katharina Pethke
Cinematographer
Christoph Rohrscheidt
Editor
Daniela Kinateder
Producer
Christoph Rohrscheidt, Sven Michael Otto
Co-Producer
ZDF / 3sat
Sound
Michael Thäle
Sound Design
Kuan-Chen Chen, Christian Riegel
Animation
Vinzent Britz
Broadcaster
ZDF / 3sat
Commissioning Editor
Udo Bremer
Nominated for: VER.DI Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness, Young Eyes Film Award