“You can only really talk to Chat.”
Interview with the directors Anton Augsten and Lea El Attal of All that we say to each other (2025)
At Visegrad Film Forum in Bratislava, young directors Anton Augsten and Lea El Attal introduced their short documentary all that we say to each other (2025). Anton and Lea study at the University of Television and Film in Munich (HFF München), where they are currently in the third year of their studies. The film is their directorial collaboration from their second year at the university. The film follows the relationship between a young woman, Silvie, and ChatGPT during a difficult time in her life. Silvie, who is in Lea’s friend group, felt both physically and emotionally disconnected from her friends when most of them moved away or left for Erasmus. That is why she decided to seek comfort in chatting with ChatGPT, known as Chat in the film. Through the film, Lea and Anton focus on the growing phenomenon of people communicating their personal issues with ChatGPT. The film’s second main interest is friendship, and it also follows the themes of loneliness, miscommunication, and love. What stands in the spotlight of the film is genuine human connection — something that could hardly be replaced by artificial intelligence.
Are the themes of AI, friendship, and mental health common for your work? And do you always work together, or did you collaborate just for this project?
L: The collaboration is something our university wants us to do for our second film. We don’t have to, but they pair us up for a 30-minute documentary film. But we really wanted to do a film together. We thought about a lot of topics. A lot of our friends used ChatGPT at that time, we were collecting screenshots from people who were really crazy about it, and that’s what was interesting for us. I don’t think it’s going to be a common theme for us, though.
A: For four or five months, we just thought about one idea after another. Like, one was quite similar, most weren’t, so it’s not something we do all the time.
L: Yeah, but we wanted to combine friendship and ChatGPT in this one. And it made sense because of Silvie’s experience. Of course, it’s not just about friends, it’s also about love, it could be about work, but we liked the theme of friendship the most.
A: And collaborating as directors was a very nice experience for me. We talked about it yesterday as well, that in a way, it gave us so much security, we didn’t feel this responsibility to split, we could have had different ideas, and that’s really nice.
L: Yeah, great production, really doing it as a team, and then, of course, postproduction — it’s so helpful to always get instant feedback from the other person.
A: Also, we noticed that during the first year of film school, when we talked about movies, we kind of connected to them in a similar way, emotionally. So, it was a good creative process, a good pace to begin from. And for me, it’s much easier to like this movie better than movies I directed on my own because I know I love our friendship, so it’s easier to think: “Ah, I like this movie because we did it together.”
Why is it that Silvie felt more open and safer to talk about her feelings with Chat rather than with her friends?
A: One big thing is availability, right? At that specific time in her life, most of her friends weren’t physically there for her or weren’t available to talk with her. She also sometimes felt that she annoyed people by always talking about her problems. That’s the entry point for Chat, because he’s always there, you can always use him.
L: He never gets tired of it.
A: He never judges and always stays invested.
L: And the conversation is never-ending, Chat always says phrases such as: “Yeah, I know what you mean, is it because of that…?” She answers and Chat continues: “Ah, okay, should we go more in that direction?” So, it’s never-ending, kind of. Also, Silvie is in my friend group, and at the time of creating the film, a lot of us were either moving away or were away for Erasmus. She felt alone for the first time, like she didn’t have anyone to talk about her daily problems with because they weren’t there anymore.
A: Another thing we realized while making the movie was that at first, you feel Chat really helps you, but soon you reach a point where the magic fades and you finally see the pattern. It becomes boring, annoying, you feel that in a way Chat’s interactions are always the same.
L: It was kind of creepy for us because we were reading a lot of conversations between her and Chat, and it was crazy how eventually the conversation was always about him somehow. He said: “You used to talk to me so much…” Like what? It’s so crazy. That’s when we really kind of freaked out that she was talking to him so much.
A: Also, about conflicts — with Chat you can never have a conflict. I think it’s a part of human life that you talk to your friends and you will have conflicts, and it won’t always be easy talking about things with people, but then Chat makes it so easy for you. Our concern is that you kind of unlearn how to resolve conflicts. And then after some time you get more isolated, you can only really talk to Chat.
You mentioned that eventually you found the way Chat reacted to Silvie weird, even creepy. During the creative process, did you question the moral, ethical concept or reality of people sharing their personal data, honest feelings, and everyday life with AI?
A: It’s interesting, it’s such a big topic. We worked on another movie a few months before this one, the idea was that chats are kind of a diary for people, and you can almost read their life through them. But emotionally, it didn’t interest me, because I don’t have a strong connection to my data, I actually share all my data. It wasn’t what really interested us. Although it’s a crazy concept. But it’s a movie for someone different, I think.
The fact that Silvie gave you full access to her conversation with Chat was such a big act of trust, especially because she had difficulties opening up to her friends. How did you all make this decision?
L: I thought it was crazy that she shared the full conversation with us. As her friend, I know a lot about her life, of course, but that we got full access to her personal conversation with Chat, that’s super private, I think. And we talked about that a lot, but she’s actually just a chill girl. (laugh) She said: “I trust you.” And: “I think I’m gonna be safe with you, like, the chats are safe with you.”
A: It’s something I thought about yesterday. I really thought about boundaries or how we tried to protect her. If the protagonist had been someone else, we would be much more careful in some situations. But with Silvie, we just got this feeling that maybe we have the same humor, or similar boundaries… So, after a while, it was clear, for example, in the situation with the roommate — we stayed recording, and she trusted us to make the decision whether to include that in the movie later, in editing, right? That we will always protect her in editing.
L: Yeah. And we did, because when she watched the movie, she was really fine with it.
A: And she was really happy.
L: She was really happy with it, yeah. She said that’s how life felt at that time. And she’s super glad that she’s not using ChatGPT anymore. She realized that people are more important than ChatGPT. I think it’s because she met new people, and we, as friends, got closer again, so that’s why I feel like it’s not a big issue for her anymore.
We also wanted to ask about the ritual near the end of the film. Was it planned? Is it something you did only for this film?
L: My friend group went on vacation to visit our friend Nina when she was doing Erasmus in Greece. We did plan it privately (laugh), but we didn’t know that we would film this movie. We told the cameraman to come with us on vacation, because we thought it would be good for the film as a whole, for our whole friendship. So, it was planned privately and then I was asking everyone: “Hey, is it fine with you if we film?” For example, I didn’t know about the conversation on the hill, that they planned to talk, Cynthie and Silvie. They just went: “Hey, let’s talk when we are here.” and I was like: “Oh, okay, nice, let’s shoot!”
A: Let’s roll! (laugh)
L: So, it was really private, actually.
The act of cutting your hands and drinking the blood — is it something traditional for your friend group or just something you wanted to try during the vacation or because of the film?
L: Yeah, we wanted to try it, we did not do it before. We felt so disconnected because we were all on different paths. We were like: “Should we reconnect again?”
A: And it’s a common thing on the internet, you cut yourself, and then two people cover fingers together. You just made a modification, right?
L: Yeah, I went: “Okay, we are five people, how do we do it?” And then: “Yeah, we have to drink it!”
It was such a funny, strong, lovable moment. Also, a bit scary at the beginning, but everyone was safe, right? (laugh)
L: Yeah, of course. And we actually tested before if we had any illnesses or not, so everyone could be safe.
A: Also, as we talk about the friend group, something very important for me was that we rarely see female friend groups in movies that are represented beyond the girly stereotype and just do stuff. So, we really love the scene because it’s so rough and funny. They’re just like: “Okay, let’s do this shit!”
What is the main message you would like for the viewer to take from the film? Especially because you mentioned that by some people it was misunderstood as advertising ChatGPT.
A: Just once, luckily! (laugh)
L: For me, it was always crazy to hear my friends use ChatGPT to ask for advice, I didn’t like it. Normally, we talked to each other about everything. And Silvie was asking me the same question as ChatGPT. She was like: “Should I do this, or should I do that?” And then she was like: “Ah, you’re answering the same way as ChatGPT.” In fact, no — ChatGPT is answering the same way as I am! I don’t know, it felt creepy to me, and I didn’t like it. So that’s what I wanted to show. I can understand that it’s helpful, but I think it’s limited, and I think it’s not good to go all in with AI and use it as a replacement for human interaction. I’m scared of that. I wanted to show it can help, but not more than normal human interaction.
A: The outsourcing of communication was, for me, the scariest part. And on the other side, we just wanted to be with her (Silvie) in an emotional way, to feel how her life was at that moment. She was the process.
L: And her emotional journey somehow.
A: And the movie shouldn’t be a lecture. We don’t want to lecture someone or say it’s exactly like that. We have a clear feeling, but I think it should be everyone’s personal concern.