BLANK
2026 · 2m
Directed by Céline Nyanga
Genres: comedy, fantasy, surrealism
Tones: absurdist, sensual, whimsical
A young woman launches into a sensual beauty ritual pushed to the absurd, which transforms her in an unexpected way.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A two-minute sensual beauty routine spiraling into body horror-adjacent weirdness should feel gimmicky, but Nyanga commits to the absurdist logic hard enough that it actually *works* — that's the move most directors botch.
Nyanga positions herself in the lineage of feminist surrealism and body-as-canvas cinema, but the formal restraint — letting the transformation speak through ritual rather than spectacle — is what separates this from Instagram-adjacent whimsy.
The entire film hinges on one decision: trusting silence and micro-expressions during the beauty ritual itself, letting the transformation land through accumulated small choices rather than a punchline reveal — that restraint is what makes the weirdness actually *land*.