Director: April Mullen
Grief and artificial intelligence collide in Simulant, a near-future thriller about how far a person will go to hold on to someone who is already gone.
What is Simulant about?
After her husband Evan dies, Faye brings a synthetic replica of him into her home, built to replicate his mannerisms and memories down to small details. The substitute looks and sounds like Evan, but Faye can't summon the same feeling toward it that she had for the man himself, and their strained household becomes more complicated once a federal agent begins tracking synthetic beings that have started developing independent awareness.
Cast & crew
Jordana Brewster plays Faye opposite Robbie Amell in the dual role of Evan and his synthetic counterpart, with Simu Liu and Sam Worthington joining as figures pulled into the fallout of self-aware androids operating outside their intended function. Alicia Sanz, Mayko Nguyen, Masa Lizdek, and Christine L. Nguyen round out the supporting cast. Director April Mullen keeps the visual world clean and corporate, letting the emotional strain between Faye and her artificial husband carry most of the tension.
Context & significance
Simulant arrives in a wave of android-consciousness stories but narrows its focus to something more domestic: what it costs to keep living with an approximation of a person rather than grieving them outright. The government-agent subplot gives the film its thriller mechanics, but its more distinctive material is the quieter material of a marriage continuing after one half of it has been replaced by a machine. Shot in Canada, the production leans on restrained, near-future production design rather than heavy effects work, using ordinary domestic spaces to keep the story's questions about identity and loss grounded rather than spectacular.
Where & how to watch
Simulant streams on K-Time once you sign in with a free account; browsing the page itself requires no login. Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles are both available, and the site's Farsi-language navigation is built for Persian-speaking audiences.