The Cast and Director of Hot Spot Unpack Their Dystopian Sci-Fi Fever Dream and the Dangers of AI
Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) returns to the sci-fi genre alongside The Lure actor-director duo Andrzej Konopka and Agnieszka Smoczyńska
by Lana Thorn 19 August 2026
Focus Features
If the term “AI thriller” makes any viewers wary of watching Hot Spot, rest assured that there is nothing artificially generated about the new psychedelic sci-fi horror from Polish director Agnieszka Smoczyńska. Instead, infused with the dreamy offbeat creativity of Smoczyńska’s breakout film, cult mermaid horror musical The Lure, Hot Spot is a trippy, genre-bending work of distinctly human artistry — and a stark warning for a world barrelling towards the kind of dystopia that was once only imaginable in film and literature.
Hot Spot imagines a society in the near future ruled by The Head, a sentient AI system to which the majority of the population is telepathically connected. Our protagonist, Djonny (Andrzej Konopka), is a gruff private eye investigating a murder case, which sees him cross paths with Rana (Noomi Rapace), a “cyberwitch” hailing from a faction that refuses to connect to The Head, and puts his wife (Reika Kirishima) and son (George Aurimas Cris) in danger. But this isn’t a straightforward detective story, and as Smoczyńska notes in her Director’s Statement, “Hot Spot isn't about following the plot. It's about immersion and dreaming.”
Calling Phantasmag ahead of the film’s US release, Rapace, Konopka, and Smoczyńska reflect on the story’s resonance with our rapidly evolving relationship to AI technology, how the sci-fi and horror genres are getting more recognition, and whether AI has a place in cinema.
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Phantasmag: Hot Spot is such an inventive, colourful sci-fi film, which also engages in a lot of complex conversations. For all three of you, if you were programming a double feature with Hot Spot, what would be the perfect companion film and why?
Noomi Rapace: I think it's a mix of Mad Max, Trainspotting, and True Romance. A mix of my favourite films.
Agnieszka Smoczyńska: I love that Noomi mentions True Romance because I watched it just before Hot Spot. It’s an interesting question because, nowadays, the film feels like something totally new. It's not a Polish Dune, or it's not a sci-fi. It's rather a playful homage to the movies which the screenwriter [Robert Bolesto] and I grew up watching on VHS. I like that this is the cinema of the future somehow because it also has anime, it also has some comedy elements — it's a really wild mixture of genres.
Andrzej Konopka: I don't know if you know the Polish director Andrzej Żuławski — maybe I would show it with Possession. Or, because I think I look a bit like Timothée Chalamet…
NR: I completely agree [laughs].
AK: …maybe with Dune.
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P: Hot Spot imagines a world ruled by AI. From when you were first developing the film in 2020 to when you were shooting in 2024 — and to now that it's coming into the world — AI has changed so drastically. What do you think of the state of AI in today's society, and why do you think it's important for viewers to see a film like Hot Spot that addresses these issues head-on?
AS: It’s very important that we aren’t connected all the time, and that AI doesn’t take control over our lives. I remember thinking when we started working on it that, in a very close future, we would start connecting with each other telepathically. I think telepathic communication could happen maybe in a few years, [and with Hot Spot], I wanted to ask, ‘What does it mean to be connected and controlled all the time?’ It’s not like Big Brother, but it’s rather that you’re controlled by AI, and you think it’s your choice — that’s the trick. The world [of Hot Spot appears to be] safe, and it's very convenient. That's why I think we should start asking ourselves what it means to be online all the time.
Focus Features
P: As filmmakers, do you think that AI has a place in cinema?
AS: I don't use AI in my cinema because I think we should use artists. You should use human beings’ brains and skills, and we decided not to use any AI elements. It would be a totally different way of expressing yourself.
NR: Same. I know a lot of people around me who use AI to break down a script and do research for a character, or for the era and the costumes. I've decided not to do that because it feels like you just want to win time. You want to do things quicker and quicker, but for what? What are you winning time for? [You’re not] allowing things to take time, exercising your brain, and allowing mistakes. That process, at least for me, helps me get where I need to land. If it goes too quickly, if the answer is served to me, then I wasn't part of the process.
And it's good to be bored. It's good to feel like you're wrong and to be challenged. I fear that it's getting so smooth that you're not even aware of all the twists and turns that you would have taken and what you would have learned on the journey if you didn't take the shortcut. So I've just decided not to use it, even though it takes longer and takes more effort.
Smoczyńska directing Konopka on set. Courtesy of Focus Features.
P: Andrzej, your role is a very exciting deconstruction of the detective archetype — I especially loved his eccentric costumes. What conversations did you have with Agnieszka about your character and how you wanted to embody him?
AK: It was quite precisely written into the script. Agnieszka quickly understood the direction my interpretation of this character was going, and she really tried not to limit me in my pursuit of the character. I thought that was one of the strengths of the directing of this film, because I really believe that the actor knows the character the most. I don't know if Noomi agrees with me.
NR: Absolutely.
AK: Of course, an actor needs an eye from the outside at all times, but the actor’s intuition is still most valuable.
P: Noomi, sci-fi and horror have gradually begun to earn a higher degree of respect in the industry, and you've worked extensively in these genres, from Prometheus to Lamb. What keeps attracting you to these otherworldly genre films, and do you feel like genre cinema is getting more recognition today?
NR: Absolutely, and rightfully so. I mean, horror and sci-fi, those are our nightmares. Those are our dreams. If you would look into my brain, when I was a child, it was wild, you know? And it still is. Growing up on sci-fi, being part of a sci-fi horror wave of cinema, and working with directors that explore that shadowland between light and dark and reality and non-reality — it makes total sense to me. Because our minds are the most complex sci-fi universes.
Hot Spot is playing in US theatres from this Friday, August 21st.