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Here comes UAE’s first travelling cyborg hero

DUBAI — The comic book super heroes imported from Hollywood can potentially go take a walk —

The UAE’s first time travelling cyborg hero has made its debut. And the name is Xero Error (XE).

A group of film enthusiasts has launched the region’s first computer generated sci-fi film, ‘Levity: Xero Error Minus 1’ at Gulf Film Festival.

A true reflection of Dubai’s cosmopolitan population, ‘Levity’ has a multicultural team behind it, says director Ashraf Ghori, the creator of XE. An Indian, he has lived in Dubai since he was two years old.

With a background in working with the comic book industry in the US, he returned to Dubai and has brought together a team of like-minded film enthusiasts to make the tales of Xero Error a reality.

‘Levity,’ a seven-minute film, is the first tale of Xero Error – referred to as XE7. “This is more of an introduction,” says Ghori. “Although it stands alone as a film, ‘Levity’ is like a template, and a declaration of our competencies and capabilities.”

He already has a full-script of the tales of XE in place. “But it is not easy to create a full-fledged computer generated sci-fi film; we need the resources and the support,” adds Waqqas Qadir Sheikh, the film’s associate producer.

The concept of XE indeed comes with the full brigade of proprietary concepts by Ghori and his team. Among these is ‘natural intelligence (NI)’ which, says Ghori, is the next generation advancement for Artificial Intelligence. Xero Error steps in to the scene here and is a time traveler, who goes back in time to dig up our collective history.

His strengths are many: XE can adopt human concepts, shoot arcs of electricity as a defensive mechanism; has a skin that mimics surroundings; and super fast reflexes and enhanced senses.

‘Levity’ marked its world premiere in Dubai at Gulf Film Festival to enthusiastic response. “The people loved it, and we have got some encouraging response,” says Ghori.

‘Levity’ has several UAE national talent too associated with it in addition to the support the film’s makers received from several UAE film professionals.

The sound design is by Abdul Razzak Al Busmait Q, who also composed the theme music. Phat Mo acts in the movie and does the original song.

Produced under the banner of Xpanse CGI, which specializes in laser shows and 3D animation, ‘Levity: Xero Error Minus 1’ is now entering the festival circuit having set its eyes at Cannes in May. The cyborg hero already has a strong fan following in cyberspace through Twitter and Facebook. — news@khaleejtimes.com