Artificial Intelligence and Intersection of Codes, Despair and Hope

Dr. Amir Sharifi | Exclusive to iKurd.net

I and moviegoers had the opportunity to see the private screening of three-mosaic short Kurdish film screening on June 26, 2025, at UCLA James Bridges Theater.

Hamoun Dawlatshahi,, the winner of the Afred Sloan Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship had constructed the three short films of different lengths: Four Corners (5 mints), Interpreter (15 mints), and Jin (20 mints) show different aspects of Kurdish life and how cultural inner connections of various communities would be essential to our co-existence and survival.

While the Four Corner celebrates Kurdish cuisine, the Interpreter examines the difficult life of an interpreter in the US legal system and the lived experiences of refugees that an empathetic Interpreter eventually loses his job as he is suspected of hesitancy in providing the exact interpretation of the vulnerable refugee’s response.

Jin is the longest short and most powerful lyrical story, demonstrating how we share a profound connection through language, poetry, science, and music as the embodiment of ineradicable local and global harmony against a universal annihilation that awaits the world unless we act.

Rojin, a UCLA university professor enchants her students by linking nature, language and poetry in the works of Farzad Kemangar, a teacher and poet prisoner who was executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran in May 2010 because like Zahra Mohammadi he taught “the alphabet of hope and equality.”

Viewers find out that Rojin as a scientist, is the inventor of an AI (Artificial Intelligence) coded device in Kurdish. American officials abruptly interrupt her class to seek her assistance to use her apparatus to save the earth from a horrific and fearsome nuclear catastrophe.

Viewers realize that “Jin” as an apparatus is a cultural artifact, an oracle of knowledge both philosophical and linguistic coded in Kurdish, capable of saving humanity from a nuclear tragedy in San Anton plant. While at the site, she understands the environmental and human cost of such a catastrophe through her own codes; however, the plant’s operators and government officials refuse to understand the implications of using a different code.

Eventually, Rojin saves the world from doomsday once the Kurdish language is recoded into English and hence Deborah orders the system to shutdown to end the horror, shock, and the unfolding calamity, Hope is once again restored through a Kurdish song.

Following the screening, a panel discussion led by the producer, Dawlatshahi, was held where the film crew revealed their personal background of cultural diversity and why and how they became involved in this altruistic project. Oscar Gervet, Liz Holland, the Assistant Director, along present actors including Karen Strassman, Joseph Gilbert, Jermey Roth Rose, and Nick Aren spoke about how their awareness was heightened and the import of their agency in the work.

Oscar Gervet spoke of a long process and how his collaboration with the film maker began and came to fruition as a “collective, complementary and collaborative” an act of dedication to a worthy project. Liz Holland, an A D ( Assistant Director) spoke of her ruminations and the passion she developed for the script:

“This is a movie that is important because AI (Artificial Intelligence) is potentially scary thing and there are many conversations about it; I think that we get to choose how to shape the future… it’s very easy to be dystopic about it ; and to believe the worst of it; and it’s harder and more rewarding to believe and shape the future we want to see for ourselves ; … is the one where people come together and try to communicate and even the part you have to sacrifice something for yourself ….understanding communication and miscommunication.”

“I mean when… “Jin” gets recoded, obviously it is a devastating moment, but that is the one being strong and ok, I need to reach people who cannot speak my language and maybe there is something deeper about why they do not understand; but, being the people, we bring you into our element and help you understand without trying to lose what makes it the original that creating what’s valuable in people, I just think this is beautiful because the movies say we can choose how AI should start . It can be positive.”

It is neither the mystical power of the “Terminator” nor beauty of Kurosawa’s “Dreams”, but the invisible despair, death, and destruction as in threads yet a simple and accessible code can reverse the process.

Protesters hold a banner with the slogan in Kurdish “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” (Woman, Life, Freedom) as they take part in a rally in support of the demonstrations in Iran over the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, in Berlin, October 22, 2022. Photo: AFP

Dawlatshahi, the producer stressed the need to put an end to Kurdish erasure and hegemonic wars. In uttering the slogan of “Woman, Life, and Freedom” “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi”, he looked back and looked ahead as the spoke of the need for intersectionality within each community and its formative role in how multimodality can connect Kurdish poetry, language, dance, ecological wellbeing, and science to weave together the powerful narrative of “Jin”.

All operators in their multiplicity join in the habitus of Kurdish dance as a powerful and iconic symbol of unity of humanity against nuclear calamity that surrounds us as division is fomented. Although the apocalyptic end is near through terrifying music, frightening alarm sirens, thick smoke, panic and fearful expressions. tranquilly come to replace the chaos once Rojin recodes jin from Kurdish to English, soon after a mellow and calm Kurdish lyric and music wafts through the air.

Conversations about Kurdish politics and cultural identity and the impact of the films continued in the hallway where snacks were provided and the film crew enthusiastically answered questions.

Details about the stars and those who helped bring the project to life:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLago1WO1tE/

Dr Amir Sharifi, a lecturer at California State University, Department of Linguistics, Long Beach.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.