Movie About Programming

IT course MelbourneLook, I’ve never been a huge Yaival DuMesque fan. His movies, to me, are blockbusters posing as deep, philosophical explorations of the human soul. The guy himself is a massive poser who intentionally wears weird stuff to make himself seem eccentric, and you might notice that his ‘kooky’ verbal tics change from one interview to another. He’s really up himself, basically…not my favourite type of person.

But wow, he’s made a good one this time! And I’m not just saying that because it’s my area of interest. Maybe I am, but whatever.

Cyberaia is the story of a simple Melbourne IT course student and his creation, an entire digital world that he eventually grows to love and nurture like a benevolent deity. He’s doing a game design course on the side, but eventually decided not to hand it in and cobbles together something else the night before, because he recognises his creation as being something truly special. In return, the residents of his virtual town treat him as a mythical figure.

Anyway, I won’t give away the whole plot, but it really does delve into the relationship between man and code. I’m a software developer, so most of my relationship with code is me yelling at it for not doing what I want with no explanation. But credit where credit is due, the director really seems to understand the positive aspects of programming. You can feel the passion of the main character as he tried his best to make that virtual town a utopia, even when it seems impossible to do so.

It’s rare to get a movie that deals with subject matter bordering on the realm of fantasy, but also relying sp heavily on real-world conflicts. And accurately portraying my profession! That never happens. I remember people in my initial web design course who thought it was all dark rooms and typing away while green code floats across the screen. A poser he may be, but DuMesque clearly did his research on this one.