MERGE Film Festival
Exploring the future of cinema: Where artificial intelligence meets creativity, experimentation, and visual storytelling
MERGE Film Festival: at the Intersection of AI, Cinema and Visual Arts
The MERGE Film Festival is Switzerland's first film festival entirely dedicated to artificial intelligence, exploring its impact on contemporary cinema and the evolution of visual languages.
Bringing together filmmakers, artists, researchers and industry professionals, the festival provides an international platform for creative experimentation, critical dialogue and new forms of audiovisual expression.
Through three competition categories — Full AI, Hybrid and Experimental — the festival recognizes outstanding works that explore the relationship between human creativity and artificial intelligence, highlighting innovative approaches to filmmaking and visual storytelling.
KIBAЛ by Emil Gasanov (Latvia)
Developed following his studies in Visual Communication Design at Istituto Marangoni Milano Design, “KIBAЛ” by Emil Gasanov, a Latvian alumnus, explores the intersection of personal identity, cultural heritage and experimental filmmaking through artificial intelligence.
The film, whose title means “Home” in the Lezgi language, is a deeply personal reflection on family, cultural identity and the evolving relationship with one's roots. Through childhood memories, familiar places and the experience of moving between cultures, the project examines how personal identity evolves while remaining connected to one's origins.
Drawing inspiration from the cinematic languages of Claire Denis, Sergei Parajanov and Sedaget Kerimova, the film combines AI-generated sequences with archival footage from the artist's parents' 1998 wedding video. Reimagined locations, symbolic imagery, personal illustrations and an intimate voice recording create a layered visual narrative that bridges memory and contemporary technology.
Combining artificial intelligence, experimental filmmaking and personal storytelling, “KIBAЛ” demonstrates how emerging technologies can become powerful tools for artistic expression, transforming individual memories into a universal reflection on belonging, identity and the meaning of home.