Thera Will See You Now is a short film directed by Kim Sønderholm. He also has a part in the film alongside Mie Gren and Sara Amlund. It’s not a huge cast, rather miniscule, but it’s just enough and there’s absolutely no need for anything else. If there were more people it would just be confusing.
Thera WIll See You Now is set in the near future. The covid pandemic is in the past and forced us to isolation. People started to not go out and distance themselves from each other as a consequence. Then came the introduction of AI, something that was happening so fast no one really saw, or could compressend where things were headed.
Now, it’s 2027 and we have started therapy sessions for lonely and troubled people with one or more traumas in their life to process. The AI, called Thera, will help them through a number of sessions. The participants will help them to find peace, be seen and to let go of their issues.
From the very start it’s obvious that this will not go well. The details of what’s going to happen is not entirely clear but Thera Will See You Now makes clear from the very beginning that empathy is a thing of the past, something we don’t need in a world full of screens and artificial intelligence.
Most of the film, well… All of the film is therapy sessions with the three people lead by the AI Thera. She/He/It leads the therapy and it’s obvious that it doesn’t really understand human emotion – or does it? It lures the inner thoughts, fears and anxiety from the participant on the path to release their inner demons.
It sounds boring doesn’t it? Maybe it wouldn’t work for two hours, but the 13 minutes or so of the running time it’s perfect. It’s never boring, dull, or slow. It keeps the tension and the acting from all parts is totally believable. I was thinning a bunch or possible scenarios for it to end with, none of them favorable for the participants. But it wasn’t until the last few sessions that I sensed where we were headed.
It’s a powerful ending and it’s scary because it’s so close to the reality we live in right now. It’s so close to reality and so close in the future that it’s hardly even sci-fi anymore. I don’t know if the intent was a warning to hit the break in technological development before it’s too late, but that is my interpretation of it.
