The Cannes Festival is not at all given to projecting animated films in its official section, but this year it has taken into account Pablo Berger’s new project, Robot dreams, for the Special Screenings section, where today it has dazzled the public in its presentation with a silent story of friendship, loneliness and loss that adapts the graphic novel by the American Sara Varon.

The protagonist is a dog, Dog, who is overwhelmed by loneliness and decides to build himself a robot to be his friend in the context of a busy New York City in the eighties. They are thick and thick and have fun going to all the places together and dancing, but one day he is forced to abandon him on a beach, which will create great anguish for him. Will they see each other again?

“I was preparing Snow White when the graphic novel Robot dreams fell into my hands and it moved me so much that I thought there was a movie there,” Berger tells La Vanguardia. The film is also silent like his successful Snow White, and it was clear to him that it had to be in 2D animation, which has taken him a long process of 5 years. In between, he did the comedy Abracadabra, again with Maribel Verdú.

The fact of making such different films each time “has become a house brand. I like that each film is a challenge or something different, like those surprise envelopes that I liked as a child,” says Berger, who defines himself as ” a rare director.” He admits that his are the Studio Ghibli films, the result of the creativity of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, and that he was inspired by his childhood memories of Marco and Heidi when approaching the proposal.

He maintains that he has felt “comfortable” in the genre, something that has not been particularly difficult for him, and that he has had a great team of animators. And he acknowledges that he understands cinema “from empathy” and from emotional journeys like the one carried out by Dog. “In all my films I seek to move,” he insists. “I realized that there are few animated films that want to move. They are usually humorous or action.”

All the characters, led by art director José Luis Ágreda, are anthropomorphic animals that behave like humans and are not distinguished by gender or race. Although it was not clear in the novel that everything took place in the Big Apple, Berger placed it there because it was where he lived for a decade between the 80s and 90s. “It is a love letter to a city that was the center of the world and that has changed a lot, but it marked a fundamental moment in my life,” he says.

Berger explains that he’s lucky to have creative freedom, “but I need the movie to work and people to go see it so I can make other movies.” That is why he is happy that it will premiere in Cannes, “the biggest showcase in the world.”

Produced by Arcadia Films, the same company behind As bestas, the rights to Robot dreams have been acquired by the North American distributor Neon, responsible for hits such as Parasites, The Triangle of Sadness or the animated documentary film Flee. Music also has an important weight in the film, with a soundtrack composed by Alfonso de Vilallonga and especially the great pop song ‘September’, by Earth, Wind and Fire. “It’s a song that doesn’t tire you because it has a very good vibe”, he concludes.