Still Here.
Work/Short Films/Still Here.
Put on standby by the busy man he once served, a domestic robot spends a lifetime watching him lose everyone who waited for him. On Christmas 2126, with no task assigned, the robot chooses to stay.
Behind the story
Why I made it
Still Here is a screenplay by Tales And I, and I wanted to co-direct it because it asks one of the quietest questions science fiction can ask: what it means to stay when nobody has asked you to. A domestic robot follows one man across a century, from a boy who falls asleep holding a teddy bear to an old man who confesses he feels invisible. The film finds its meaning in the moment care stops being a task and becomes a choice.
The world
The story moves through three years of one life, 2026, 2051 and 2126, in a lived-in future where a home AI called HALO dims the lights on schedule and longevity medicine keeps a man of 106 healthy. Colour carries the memory: amber and cream for childhood, cool blue for the years of work, and a single red that the film reserves for chosen care, the heart of the teddy bear and the heart of Kasper.
The characters
Kasper
Domestic companion robot. Pearl-white and faceless, with a single blue light for an eye, he was made to clean, cook and carry, and over more than seventy-five years of service he learns to choose a response no task asks for.
The Boy, the Man, the Old Man
One life across three ages. Curious as a boy, gifted and absent without meaning to be as a man, and at 106 gentle, dry-humoured and afraid of becoming invisible.
Mei
The woman he loves, in Kyoto. They met late in life, and on Christmas night she is a window away: the pane darkens to a soft mirror and she appears life-size from the other side of the world.
Credits
Registered works
Every film, series and book on this site is a registered work and the exclusive property of Jeff Zambrano. Stories, characters, titles, scripts and images may not be copied, adapted or used to train any system without written permission. Copies and derivative works are traced automatically, and any infringement will be pursued under the laws of the country where it originates.
