13 minutes. 3 bigots. 1 broken elevator. What could go wrong?
A Maori gang member and a Neo-Nazi become trapped in an elevator and must put aside their differences to escape their predicament; all the while dealing with an equally racist Chinese maintenance worker.
Writing
Sharp dialogue weaponizes stereotypes against themselves.
Acting
Three actors make claustrophobia combustible.
Director
Tihini Grant
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Tihini Grant's short emerged from New Zealand's film school scene, where Māori filmmakers often use dark comedy to dissect colonial and contemporary racial tensions.
The elevator as metaphor is obvious, but Grant's twist—making the 'neutral' third party equally prejudiced—refuses easy moral binaries.
US
