In Garth Davis’ new mashup, Foe, the future of the planet – and its relationships – depends in part on the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence in response to climate change.
The Amazon Studios film, scheduled for release worldwide on October 6, is based on author and co-writer Iain Reid’s 2018 novel of the same name. Set in a climate-ravaged near future, a couple living on an isolated farm becomes a test subject for the survival of humanity.
The book brought together a wide range of genre descriptors – psychological thriller, horror, science fiction, to name a few – and the film aims to live in all of them, sometimes simultaneously. Yet for writer-director Davis, who spoke about the making of the film in a post-screening discussion at the 2023 New York Film Festival, he not only found “the book completely compelling in its mystery,” but was ultimately attracted to the relationship. between Hen by Saoirse Ronan and Junior by Paul Mescal which is at the base.
“I guess what really drew me in was the central relationship. “What Hen was trying to fight for and find in that relationship and how that experience sort of allowed him to re-explore marriage and reconnect with his agency,” he explained to a packed audience for the world premiere of the film Saturday at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. “It had an unusual shape that represented the classic qualities of the cinematic genre, but underneath was a very deeply human story.”
This story follows the couple after a visit from Terrance (Aaron Pierre), an official from a government agency overseeing human expansion into space. With the planet now so ravaged by the effects of climate change, societies are seeking to imagine a new way of survival for the world’s population.
“What we were really interested in was how this relationship resonated with the state of the planet and exploring our interconnectivity. The way we behave is almost also a reflection of the state of the planet,” he said. “The question is: if we can change, can we make choices that (not only) improve our own lives, but also the world? »
Terrance arrives with a proposition that soon reveals itself as a command: Junior has been selected to help test humans’ ability to survive on a newly constructed space station. This “opportunity” would separate the duo – who have already become emotionally distant in their marriage – from each other.
They have a little over a year to prepare before Terrance returns to begin Junior’s pre-mission testing, which begins to turn into a kind of psychological warfare. The revelation that an AI version of Junior will be left with Hen in his absence only adds insult to the injured couple, further threatening to tear them apart.
Meanwhile, around them is a planet where the environment is losing the fight to continue and industry is the only thing still thriving. For Davis, this contrast – and connection – between the couple and the environment was something he wanted to focus on.
“Junior’s farm and the way Hen lived with Junior was like a window into the natural world or the state of the natural world. When we move away from that, we become interested in this disturbing naturalism. It’s the color of these mega-industries,” Davis explained of how he and production designer Patrice Vermette depicted Earth in the near future. “Either the land is wasted and exhausted and cannot be uninterrupted, or it is brightly colored with hollow towers for tower farming.”
Climate change and the development of human-like AI as a backdrop to the film’s relationship drama is also something that initially attracted Davis to Foe, and increasingly so as the film progressed through production. “It seemed radically close to happening. I feel like it’s an impending story and it even moved me while making the film,” he explained. “Things were happening during production, and I was like, ‘Holy shit, this is getting real.'”
For most of the film, the issues it raises are largely framed within the larger narrative framework of a deteriorating relationship struggling to endure. For Davis, Hen is a character trapped by the past in “a house of ghosts,” while Junior takes on generational responsibility for his farm and family. Both, along with the audience, are asked to decide what they want to keep and what they decide to change.
“They are great soulmates. Junior makes Hen happy, but over time he has lost his spontaneity and ability to change. That’s something I find really interesting,” Davis said. “What happens to relationships over time, and how do we remember to strip things away, reevaluate, and connect to our true calling?” »
But as the film progresses, these relationship questions begin to morph into something darker and, at times, even sinister, as elements of the story’s mystery begin to unravel. Davis says cinematographer Mátyás Erdély – who he chose to work with after his regular cinematographer was busy on other projects – helped him navigate “this delicious experience” of storytelling.
“This whole film is a chain of sequences set in one house, and I didn’t want to take that for granted. You can’t be lazy with talking heads drama in a space. But I had a strong feeling that he could help me bring that to life – the tension, the mystery,” the filmmaker said. “What was really exciting for him, and for me in particular, is that for new viewers, you have a hard time understanding what’s going on here. There are a lot of secret rivets. There are many truths, lies and pretenses.
“(It was) trying to calibrate that. How evident is this in camera choice? How often do actors do this? Davis continued. “He’s very, very involved in the script and the story and he really wants to know what the essence of each scene is to know where the camera should go.”
The editing process, led by Peter Sciberras, worked similarly in terms of unfolding and then revealing the mystery behind the film’s love story. “The biggest challenge of the film, in every way, was deciding what to reveal and what to hide,” explained the director. “We were exploring it experimentally with performances, but we just had to calibrate the editing to hopefully keep the audience engaged but intrigued and confused and excited and then hopefully find some of the answers.”
The casting, overseen by Francine Maisler and Kirsty McGregor, and the performances were also essential to Davis’ success with his own mystery. It was necessary, according to the director, to first find his chicken, because she was “the spiritual totem of the film”.
After that, he chose casting based on performance and chemistry, noting that Mescal and Ronan’s shared identities as Irish actors made them “feel good” as “this married couple straight out of the high school” and came from the same place. “I just had a feeling the chemistry would be believable, and they’re both really hungry (as actors) to explore a more mature relationship,” he added.
Davis later described Pierre as “a completely different style of actor” but still a performer who brought so much to this character. “The antagonist was the hardest to choose because you can really fall into stereotyping, and I really wanted to try and explore something fresh and intriguing,” he explained. “I thought he brought a lot of interesting choices, like he really believed that what he was doing was going to improve humanity.”
