Tags:
Film: Turing Test
Year: 2025
Director: Jaschar Marktanner
Writer: Jaschar Martanner
Starring: Marlene Fahnster, Richard Lingscheidt and Ozen Fidan
Review:
This is a short film that I got the chance to see when the writer/director of Jaschar Marktanner reached out with a screener link. When I looked this up, I saw that it wasn’t horror. I do enjoy sci-fi and this being a short, I decided to check it out for review.
Synopsis: preparing your own AI for an upcoming Turing test is hard enough - even harder when it doesn’t behave the way you planned. But for young Sophie (Marlene Fahnster), everything depends on passing the test with Alan (Richard Lingscheidt).
That synopsis does well in stating what this is about. It runs six minutes and a majority of that is Alan and Sophie chatting. I’ll be honest, I forgot what the Turing test was until hearing their back and forth. Interestingly enough, earlier this year my wife and I rewatched Transcendence where this test is mentioned, that helped it click. I did look it up as well. It is a 1950s-era thought experiment to gauge a machine’s ability to exhibit human-like intelligence to determine which is the machine.
Now with that set up, I do love the back and forth between these two. Sophie seems stressed in making sure that Alan stays on track to ensure that they pass. The major goal is to mask enough for it to seem human. That does seem to be one of the major goals for AI. The back and forth of the conversations were great. What is even better is the little stinger at the end to reveal the truth.
I’ll include here as well that for me when it comes to rating short films, they either need to tell a complete story or do I want to know more? For this one, I think that it effectively conveys everything that it needs. It sets it up, hooks the viewer and then I like where it goes for its reveal. This is well-done.
What is truly carrying this is the acting performances. Fahnster and Lingscheidt just talk. This plays with perceptions, which I’m a fan of. There are moments where Sophie seems to be getting through and then Alan will say something to derail everything. What is even better about this dialogue is that by the end, what is truly being tested isn’t necessarily what we think from the beginning. That made me smile.
Other than that, let’s shift over to discussing the filmmaking aspects. For most of this we’re inside of a virtual reality world. It is white, almost like something you’d see in The Matrix. It is then just watching these two talk. When we leave that world for the final reveal, we see that it is a normal office which grounds it as well. The cinematography and framing capture this well. Outside of making this room look the way it does, we don’t need much in the way of effects. I do appreciate this grounded approach to science fiction.
In conclusion, this is a highly effective six-minute short film that utilizes strong performances and clever dialogue to explore the philosophical implications of artificial intelligence and the nature of the Turing test itself. Director Marktanner successfully creates a low-budget, yet visually appropriate, sci-fi world that puts the focus squarely on the tense conversation between Fahnster's Sophie and Lingscheidt's Alan. The film's strength lies in its ability to challenge the viewer's perceptions, culminating in a satisfying final reveal that redefines the stakes of the experiment. This short is a smart, well-executed piece of science fiction that comes highly recommended.
My Rating: 8 out of 10