Arriba
2025 · 3m · España
Directed by Anna Agulló Prieto
Tones: contemplative, tense
After shots are fired, two strangers lock themselves inside a small cleaning closet, confronting fear and suspicion.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The locked-room thriller is as old as Hitchcock, but trapping two strangers in a cleaning closet during active gunfire feels deliberately absurd in a way most scouts would mistake for limitation—Prieto knows exactly what she's doing with the premise's claustrophobic comedy.
Arriba positions itself within a lineage of chamber thrillers and psychological standoffs, executing the formal constraint with discipline; the 3-minute duration becomes less a budget necessity and more a curatorial choice about sustaining tension without release.
The entire film hinges on the decision to keep the violence offscreen and let two actors navigate fear and suspicion in a space the size of a broom closet—that restraint, and whatever Prieto found in her performers' proximity, transforms what could've been a gimmick into something that actually breathes.