In 2007, Sara Varon published the graphic novel Robot Dreams, where images alone, sans texts, tell the story of the friendship between a dog and a robot, set in an unspecified time and in a country that looks like the United States, although there are no recognizable locations.

Its cinematographic adaptation premiered in December, an animated film given the same title and likewise stripped of dialogue, directed by Pablo Berger. It begins with a nocturnal view of the Brooklyn Bridge and the WTC Twin Towers. The scene then cuts to a map-like nighttime picture of a street with a sign that says ‘East Village.’ The next sight is a facade with only two windows lit, and that’s the apartment of Dog Varon, the canine lead character. There is no doubt that the plot unfolds in pre-2001 New York neighborhoods...[+]