‘Asphalt Guerrilla’ Blends Fact, Fiction, AI and a Story About Filmmaking to Hold Up a Mirror to Our Time
Edgar Pêra’s new film Asphalt Guerrilla blends historical events, fictional storytelling and AI-assisted techniques to revisit Portugal’s FP-25 militant group and reflect on radicalism, artistic independence and filmmaking itself. Premiering out of competition at the Locarno Film Festival on 10 August, the film matters because it uses a contentious chapter of Portuguese democracy to question both political violence and the compromises involved in making art.
FP-25, active from 1980 to 1987, carried out dozens of bombings, shootings and bank robberies; the film draws on Manuel Ricardo de Sousa’s book about a member killed by a mob after a robbery. Its story follows a student drawn into the group, while a parallel director character leaves it to pursue guerrilla filmmaking; Pêra co-wrote the screenplay with producer Rodrigo Areias and describes the work as containing “many films”.
- Film revisits Portugal’s radical FP-25 group through fact and fiction.
- It premieres at Locarno on 10 August.
- Pêra uses the story to explore political and creative rebellion.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The film represents essential contemporary cinema, using formal innovation to illuminate difficult truths about radicalism that straightforward documentation cannot reach. By deliberately blending fact, fiction and AI across multiple narrative layers, Pêra trusts viewers as intelligent participants, enabling reflection on both historical complexity and the inevitable compromises inherent in artistic creation. Such experimental engagement with difficult material fulfils cinema's responsibility to challenge and provoke.
The case against
Using real bombings and killings as material for a narrative that deliberately blurs fact and fiction risks aestheticising actual violence and suffering in service of artistic experiment. The film's parallel focus on creative struggle may centre the filmmaker's concerns rather than grappling seriously with the historical harm done. This approach risks prioritising formal innovation over genuine ethical accountability to those affected by the violence.