Good Deed Entertainment's Guidance will be released on VOD next month, and we can offer a sneak peek with the exclusive premiere of the trailer. Previously premiering in China, the film delves into the consequences of trying to create enlightened people with a device known as "Guidance." You can watch the trailer below.
Neysan Sobhani directed Guidance. The film stars Jia Sun, Harry Song, and Francesco Chen. You can read the official logline below.
During a trip to the country, a young couple use 'Guidance', a device made to create enlightened people. But, as time passes, they subvert Guidance to manipulate and lie-- hoping to save what they are afraid of losing the most: each other.
"Neysan Sobhani’s short films and notably his feature debut, Guidance, have been described as Social Sci-Fi, but a precise description is evasive— likely a reflection of an unusual history," a press release states of the film's director. "Raised in Asia and North America, he fled war or conflict twice while still young, his identity shaped by the diverse and many places he lived. As a diaspora filmmaker, Sobhani’s films have flavors of Asian and Western cinema, with his short films appearing in over 40 international film festivals around the world."
Guidance Was Well Received in China
The idea for Guidance came to Sobhani while the filmmaker was working on the screenplay for a different film. Because the concept was too good to pass up, Sobhani diverted attention to this new project. There was simply too much creative potential that once Sobhani got started on Guidance, there was no slowing down.
"I always wanted to explore the intersection of humanity, nature and technology, and to have characters inhabit competing philosophical world-views," Sobhani said. "At the same time, I’ve been fascinated with Greek history and mythology, which finds a natural place within the film as well. If the film can cause people to think and debate their views, then we would have achieved something."
The reviews of Guidance's original release in China were also very positive. Of course, the hope is that will translate well with North American audiences with the film's release on VOD.
"A high-concept film that asks ‘if no one is capable of lying, will the world be a better place?’ An empty holiday house, lovers hiding secrets, human society reborn after the ruins of war, and in Neysan Sobhani, a Writer/Director who took this story to the extreme by giving every prop, every scene and every line a rich philosophical meaning –sometimes deeply hidden– to the point that the film employs a strong experimental temperament," reads one review from Jiemian News, translated from Chinese. “People are often surprised by the ideological impact of Guidance. They are willing to interpret the richly meaningful images in the film frame by frame, even having a kind of speculative joy doing so."
Guidance will be released on all major VOD platforms in the United States on Jun 17, 2022, courtesy of Good Deed Entertainment. You can find out more about the movie at the official website.