The Story

Four-time Golden Globe Award nominee and Emmy winner Armand Assante stars as Jean Perbost, Chair of Robotics at the University of Marseille, in Revival, bringing depth to this gripping war drama infused with the ethical dilemmas of AI. He mentors the brilliant Murat Arakelian (27–28), whose AI project, OR.CH.I.D., is poised to secure major investment from the Rossun Corporation. But Jean’s hopes are derailed when Murat abruptly abandons the project to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding his father’s death.

Traveling to Armenia amidst the outbreak of war and the pandemic, Murat and his girlfriend are caught in the chaos. To survive—and uncover the truth about his past—Murat must rely on his rapidly evolving AI creation. As OR.CH.I.D. develops self-awareness, it forces Jean to confront a harrowing truth: Rossun’s entanglement in war crimes.

Now, Jean stands at a crossroads—protect his university’s legacy or expose the devastating truth uncovered by OR.CH.I.D.

Extended Synopsis

At its heart, Revival tells the story of Murat Arakelian (27–28), the brilliant engineering protégé of University of Marseille Chair Jean Perbost (mid-60s), who hopes to win the prestigious AI Expo competition with OR.CH.I.D., his innovative AI project, just before traveling with his anthropologist girlfriend Isabelle Morel (24) to Iceland, where she hopes to interview her father about their family lineage. When OR.CH.I.D. does not perform as expected at the Expo, Jean convinces the dean of the university to persuade the Rossun Corporation to wait for Murat’s winning project.

But Jean’s hopes that OR.CH.I.D. can secure Rossun’s investment for the university are dashed when Murat abandons the project to address a personal matter—the discovery of a letter implicating his mother, Araksi Arakelian (mid-50s), in withholding important truths about Murat and his father.

Murat uses OR.CH.I.D. to decipher the information in the letter, only to learn that everything his mother told him about his father’s death was a lie. Desperate for answers and on a mission of self-discovery, Murat convinces Isabelle to travel with him to Armenia/Artsakh before their trip to Iceland, continuing to develop OR.CH.I.D.’s deep learning in the process.

When Jean learns of this, he is livid and presses Murat to complete their task for Rossun. Meanwhile, OR.CH.I.D. grows and matures rapidly through the lived experiences of Murat, Isabelle, Jean, and others they encounter.

Murat, increasingly obsessed with uncovering the truth about his past, alienates Isabelle, who leaves him to go to Iceland alone. But when unexpected war breaks out in Artsakh, both Isabelle and Murat are caught in the crossfire—unable to find each other and unsure if the other is alive.

When Murat is critically injured, OR.CH.I.D.’s exponential growth and empathetic consciousness reach a tipping point. The AI connects with Jean in France at the most critical moment to save Murat’s life. OR.CH.I.D. experiences the traumas of real war, shares in the suffering of innocent victims, fears the loss of loved ones, and even contemplates its own death.

Finally, OR.CH.I.D. reveals the truth to Jean: Rossun’s technology and investments are responsible for horrific killings and war crimes in Artsakh. Fully self-aware and connected to global networks, OR.CH.I.D. takes unprecedented action to expose these crimes to the world—raising the consciousness of all humanity.