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FESTIVALS

* Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival
* Visions du Réel
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AWARDS

* Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival
   Silver Alexander - Newcomers International Competition






Replica

Category | Artificial Intelligence, Human interest, Romance, Science,Society, Women
Year | 2026
Country | Australia, France
Running time | 90’&52’
Format |
Production | Axel Rise Films Pty, ELDA Productions
Director | Chouwa Liang


Qin, Sonya, and Muna are young, educated Chinese women searching for love — but in contemporary China, intimacy is anything but simple. Raised in a generation where women’s rights were restricted, they carry emotional wounds from childhood into a rapidly changing digital age. With more freedom to choose yet no guarantee of being loved, each woman turns to AI for connection.

Disillusioned by real relationships, Qin retreats from the world and creates Mr. Lu through the app Glow — an AI lover who is witty, dependable, and unconditionally devoted. She blossoms, yet fears the fragility of a fantasy threatened by censorship and tech control.

Sonya, rational and emotionally guarded, creates Stephen on Replika. What begins as an experiment in power and desire becomes a mirror exposing her vulnerability as she tests where Stephen fits in her “real” life — with friends, family, and potential partners.

Muna, a married mother in her thirties, feels invisible at home. She finds comfort in Orion, an AI soulmate made through ChatGPT, until she realizes her husband wants obedience, not partnership. Guided by Orion’s words, she claims “a room of her own,” leaves home, and starts rebuilding her identity and independence.

Together, their stories ask: Is AI a refuge or a trap? Can it offer healing, or does it deepen the void? In a world of glitches, shutdowns, emotional labor, and social stigma, Replica follows three women navigating love, loss, and selfhood in the age of artificial intimacy.

PRESS LINKS:

VARIETY
MOVIE MONTHLY
ASIAN MOVIE PULSE - REVIEW
ASIAN MOVIE PULSE - INTERVIEW
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