Elliott Crosset Hove reunites with fellow Danish star Sandra Guldberg Kampp in Electric Child. Hove and Kampp previously worked together in the fantastic Wildland, and he would later re-team with director Hlynur Pálmason for the Icelandic epic Godland.
Electric Child is directed by Swiss filmmaker Simon Jaquemet and follows Sonny (played by Hove) and his partner Akiko (Fukushima) as they become parents in what feels like a dystopian world. Sonny is working on a major project with a tech giant. We see him give a speech using so much tech terminology that would leave most people lost, it’s clear that this is an incredibly advanced and complex project that divides opinion and breaks new ground.
At the heart of the film is an AI experiment: scientists are testing whether an avatar can learn to survive on a simulated island. The goal is to see if it can gain enough knowledge and memory to avoid repeating mistakes—like falling off a cliff—eventually adapting to its environment.
That avatar is played by Sandra Guldberg Kampp, who delivers a fascinating performance as the AI struggling to navigate its world.
When Sonny and his partner learn that their infant has a life-threatening illness, he turns to his AI creation in search of a cure. To achieve this, he enters the environment he designed and interacts with his AI entity, known as The Being. There, they strike a deal – he must provide resources to help the AI expand its knowledge in exchange for its assistance.
The film’s narrative is intricate and demands the viewer’s full attention. This is rewarded by the gripping performances of Elliott Crosset Hove and Sandra Guldberg Kampp, as well as the film’s overall sense of mystery.
At times, Electric Child feels slow and cryptic, with elements – like characters accessing various servers for personal gain or acting as spies for Google – left somewhat ambiguous. But rather than being frustrating, this adds to the film’s intrigue.
What Simon Jaquemet has achieved, seemingly on a modest budget, is remarkable. Electric Child lingers in the mind long after the credits roll, perhaps even warranting a rewatch to unpack its layers. Considering the film was shot a year or so before AI became a dominant topic in the media, it feels eerily ahead of its time, both unsettling and fascinating.
The film has had a strong festival run, and it was great to see it screen at the Glasgow Film Festival. Hopefully, this momentum will lead to a distributor picking it up for a UK or US release.
Electric Child has its UK premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival 2025.
