‘Asphalt Guerrilla’ Blends Fact, Fiction, AI and a Story About Filmmaking to Hold Up a Mirror to Our Time

Portuguese auteur Edgar Pêra discusses his new film, premiering at Locarno, shares how he is using AI to fight his concerns about it, and why he thinks about the rise of radicalism in the world as a symptom.

The movie stars Dominic Sessa as a 19-year-old Bourdain—“spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive, and thoughtless,” in the writer’s own words—decades before he became a celebrated memoirist and TV host. But just how much of Tony is true?