This Sad, Lovely Film Starring a Dancing Robot Reminds Us of the Importance of Human Companionship

With ongoing developments in A.I., we can almost see the day when robots like R2-D2, C3P0 and Wall-E will be part of our daily lives. But this bittersweet story for charity the Society of St. Vincent de Paul reminds us of how real human contact is crucial to keeping us emotionally afloat.

Created out of CLM BBDO Paris and directed by David Wilson via La Pac, "B.E.N. (Bionically Engineered Nursing)," depicts the story of an elderly, house-ridden woman named Claudine, who gets around with the help of a robot assistant. Her A.I. companion, B.E.N., tends to her basic needs -- helping her with dinner, giving her medication at the correct time. But one morning, when B.E.N. tries to get her out of bed, we begin to see how her engineered partner can't live up to a real, human touch. In the end, we see how Claudine, dejectedly has to make due with what she has.

The film seeks to highlight the loneliness that affects 5 million people - one out of eight citizens -- in France. It debuted on September 27th, Saint Vincent de Paul's day and is running in social media and in cinema.