Jenna Ortega plays an artificial companion learning to understand human behaviour in Klara and the Sun, Taika Waititi’s upcoming adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s bestselling 2021 novel. The Sony Pictures production stars Oscar-nominated actor Amy Adams alongside Ortega, with Natasha Lyonne, Steve Buscemi and Aran Murphy also featuring in the cast. Following its premiere at the London Film Festival, the 116-minute feature is scheduled for theatrical release on October 23.
Ortega plays Klara, an Artificial Friend designed to provide companionship. Unlike the highly capable, all-knowing artificial intelligence characters often portrayed in science-fiction films, Klara approaches the world with curiosity and a limited understanding of human behaviour. She learns by observing the people around her, gradually making sense of unfamiliar experiences in a way that resembles a young child discovering the world.
Klara’s life changes when teenager Josie, played by Mia Tharia, brings her into a household facing difficult personal circumstances. Adams plays Josie’s mother, while Klara’s growing relationship with the family becomes central to the story. Her belief in the sun’s ability to help people also shapes her actions, giving her a distinctive perspective on the challenges confronting those she has been created to assist.
The film adapts Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, published in 2021. The Nobel Prize-winning author is also known for works including Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day. His exploration of humanity through the observations of an artificial narrator gives the story a different starting point from conventional robot-led science fiction.
Rather than concentrating solely on technological advances, the narrative explores loneliness, family relationships and the desire to protect someone you love. Klara’s observations become increasingly important as she tries to understand the people around her and the circumstances of the household she has joined. Through her perspective, the story examines how an artificial companion might interpret human emotions and relationships without fully understanding them.
Waititi directs the film and co-writes the screenplay with Dahvi Waller. The adaptation brings the novel’s serious themes together with humour and warmth, establishing a tone that differs from that of a conventional science-fiction thriller. Its futuristic setting also touches on concerns surrounding technology and the misuse of the internet, while keeping the focus on its characters and their relationships.
At the film’s London premiere, Ortega and Waititi discussed an irony at the heart of the story: a film about artificial intelligence can encourage audiences to put down their phones and reconnect with people in the real world.
The idea reflects Klara’s role as an artificial companion. Although she is designed to keep someone company, her attention to the people around her highlights the importance of listening, observing and spending time together. The film connects its futuristic premise with a familiar aspect of contemporary life without presenting technology itself as the problem.
Alongside Ortega and Adams, the cast includes Lyonne, Buscemi and Murphy. Waititi and Waller share screenplay credits, while Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino provides the musical score. Sony Pictures is handling the film’s theatrical distribution.
By bringing Ishiguro’s story to the screen through Klara’s experiences with Josie and her family, the adaptation places human relationships at the centre of its science-fiction premise. The story’s central question is not simply what artificial intelligence might become, but what an artificial companion’s attempt to understand people can reveal about humanity itself.