Dreams of Violets: an AI-made drama about Iran that cost $2,000

Next week Dreams of Violets, a 75-minute drama about the brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters in Iran in January, will premiere at the Tribeca film festival in New York. Based on journalism, video footage and eyewitness accounts, its Iranian-British director Ash Koosha says, "I would say 80% of it is a recreation of events that actually happened," though the film is a work of fiction following strangers who meet in an alleyway.

Every image and character in Dreams of Violets was generated with artificial intelligence. Koosha created the characters by describing their physical appearances and using people he has known as references, adding that for security reasons it would be unsafe for them to resemble living people in Iran.

The film is the first fully AI live-action feature accepted at a major festival, arriving amid a small wave of other AI projects and some festival reluctance: "A lot of the traditional festivals just don't want to touch AI. They don't want to even talk about it," he says.

United States, New York

ash koosha, tribeca, ai film, ai-generated, iran protests, anti-government, live-action, feature film, low-budget, film festival