Sweet Heist
2025 · 15m · Uganda
Directed by Ali Kisitu
Tones: contemplative, whimsical
A debt-burdened young woman invents a heist story for her coworkers, revealing a creative potential that changes her life in unforeseen ways.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects this to be a heist film, then it pivots into something about self-actualization through storytelling—which should be insufferable, but Kisitu's refusal to let the fantasy fully overtake the mundane desperation keeps it weird enough to matter.
A formally assured piece that understands the lineage of metanarrative cinema while staying grounded in economic realism; the interplay between diegetic storytelling and lived constraint recalls a more playful Chloé Zhao sensibility.
The entire film turns on the moment when the coworkers' reactions shift from indulgence to genuine investment—it's a single beat of ensemble recognition that Kisitu nails, and it reframes everything as a quiet thesis about who gets to dream out loud.