{"id":413811,"date":"2026-07-02T15:58:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T18:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=413811"},"modified":"2026-07-02T15:58:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T18:58:38","slug":"the-world-through-autism-in-ai-assisted-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/the-world-through-autism-in-ai-assisted-film\/","title":{"rendered":"The world through autism in AI-assisted film"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Airplane<\/em>, a short film written and directed by Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Beriky, is among the finalists of the AI for Good Film Festival, organized by the United Nations agency specializing in digital technologies (ITU<\/a>). Produced by Beriky with the support of artificial intelligence, Avi\u00e3o<\/em> portrays the world through the eyes of an autistic child living in S\u00e3o Paulo, the city Beriky chose as his home in Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to ANBA, the filmmaker said the idea for Avi\u00e3o<\/em> first came to him while he was still working in social services, his professional field before entering filmmaking. \u201cDuring my training, autism was one of the subjects that left the strongest impression on me. Even then, I had written it down as a possible film project. But I never wanted to make an educational film or a kind of medical diagnosis of autism. The goal was never to \u2018explain\u2019 autism, but to try to understand that world\u2014to see a child on the autism spectrum from the child’s perspective, rather than only through the eyes of adults,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Beriky
Beriky developed the film and used AI to create its visuals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In Avi\u00e3o<\/em>, an autistic boy notices an airplane painted on a wall along a busy S\u00e3o Paulo street while his father, running late for work, grows increasingly stressed in traffic. The boy begins repeating the word \u201cairplane,\u201d but his father ignores the cue until, overwhelmed by the emotional weight of the moment, he envisions a plane crashing\u2014a manifestation of the profound shift taking place in his own perception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Avi\u00e3o<\/em>, AI was especially important because the film needed to blend realism with subjective perception. There is an ordinary morning, a father running late, a child, and S\u00e3o Paulo traffic. But there is also an almost sensory inner shift, when the father finally realizes that the repeated word carried a meaning he had failed to grasp,\u201d Beriky explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film was officially released on April 6, following two weeks of research, development, and scriptwriting. Another week was then devoted to the film’s visual production, using two AI-powered content generation programs. The screenplay and overall artistic vision were entirely conceived by Beriky. AI was used to create the film’s realistic visuals\u2014its characters, settings, and everything seen on screen was generated from Beriky’s prompts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the biggest challenges was finding the right tone. AVI\u00c3O<\/em> could not feel like an educational video about autism, nor could it use AI merely as a visual spectacle. The challenge was to make the audience experience the confusion, the pressure, the repetition, and, ultimately, the delayed understanding,\u201d the filmmaker said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnother challenge was maintaining emotional and cinematic coherence within an AI workflow. AI can generate powerful images, but cinema is not just about images. Cinema is rhythm, choice, silence, point of view, editing, and responsibility for what you are trying to say,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being selected as one of the finalists for the AI for Good Film Festival is another milestone in the film’s journey, as Avi\u00e3o<\/em> has already been a finalist or winner at several other competitions. \u201cFor me, this journey is very meaningful because it shows that the film is not being seen merely as an AI experiment. It is being recognized as cinema, as a human story, and as an attempt to use technology to foster empathy,\u201d Beriky said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before embracing digital filmmaking, the director worked with motion picture film and photographic negatives. He produced television programs in Saudi Arabia, took part in productions in Turkey, and also worked in advertising. He has lived in S\u00e3o Paulo for six years, is married to a Brazilian, and has two Brazilian children. \u201cIn a way, Brazil has ceased to be just a place where I live\u2014it has become part of my life, my family, and my artistic identity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 9, all eyes will be on Switzerland for Beriky, as Avi\u00e3o <\/em>is set to be screened at the festival in Geneva. From that date onward, the film will also be available to watch online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/em>:
Brazilian launches autobiographical book in Gulf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Supplied<\/div>
Divulga\u00e7\u00e3o<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Avi\u00e3o, directed by Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Beriky, who has lived in S\u00e3o Paulo for six years, is competing for an award from a United Nations agency focused on digital technologies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2317,"featured_media":413793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[57375,9534,9535,4695,10506,10080,3777],"class_list":{"0":"post-413811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"tag-aviao-2","9":"tag-brazil-en","10":"tag-cinema-en","11":"tag-egyptian","12":"tag-festival-en","13":"tag-sao-paulo-en","14":"tag-united-nations"},"wps_subtitle":"Avi\u00e3o, directed by Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Beriky, who has lived in S\u00e3o Paulo for six years, is competing for an award from a United Nations agency focused on digital technologies.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413811"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":413821,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413811\/revisions\/413821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}