Orbit
2019 · 9m
Directed by Nicholas Camp, Don Thiel III
Genres: drama, sci-fi, thriller
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
Aboard an orbital station, a crew member becomes convinced a colleague is hiding a terrible secret, retelling a classic tale of guilt and obsession in space.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Space paranoia thriller sounds like homework until you realize the whole thing is just two people in a can playing psychological chess—which is either boring or brilliant, and I'm genuinely unsure which, so it probably doesn't deserve the pick.
Camp and Thiel III understand the architectural precision this premise demands: confined space, escalating doubt, the formal rigor of Polanski or early Fincher compressed into nine minutes—this is a film aware of its own lineage and executing it with measured intensity.
The real move here is how sparse the palette is: the decision to let silence and proximity do the heavy lifting instead of score or production design reveals everything about restraint, and one particular performance moment of hesitation becomes the entire film's thesis.