No Witnesses
2021 · 2m
Directed by Justine King
Genres: drama, experimental, horror
Tones: contemplative, dark, surreal
From a murderer's baby's perspective: the innocent witness to a diamond thief's murder enters realization and growth through instinctual fear.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A murderer's infant as the moral center of a crime film—it's the kind of premise that makes you physically recoil, which is exactly why it works. King trusts the audience to sit with the obscene and find something genuine in the discomfort.
The formal restraint here is remarkable: a 2-minute piece that could easily dissolve into maudlin sentiment instead maintains the cool distance of the experimental tradition, letting surrealism do the philosophical work without explanation.
The decision to anchor everything through the baby's sensory experience—the sound design and editing rhythm syncing to primal fear rather than narrative logic—transforms what could've been a gimmick into the entire engine of the film.