

A cop falls for a sex worker while hunting her killer—what could possibly go wrong?
With a curb-crawling serial killer targeting prostitutes, Joshua scours Auckland's underbelly to find the woman who keeps running away, before it's too late.
Cinematography
Auckland's neon-lit underbelly shot like a character with secrets.
Acting
Cameron's slow-burn descent from protector to something else entirely.
Director
Amanda Phillips
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
One of few New Zealand films to center Māori and Pasifika sex workers without exoticizing them—Amanda Phillips drew from actual outreach work in Auckland's Karangahape Road district.
The title's double meaning reveals itself in the third act: 'desired' as wanted by the killer, and as Joshua's increasingly possessive 'desire' to own Red's future.