Experimental Narrative Short Film (2024)
In a claustrophobic prison ruled by unseen watchers, a man endures a ritualistic daily routine of state-mandated “truth”, until the moment his refusal shatters the illusion of freedom and exposes the terrifying machinery of control that thrives without anyone left to operate it.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Routine explores how systems of control shape a person from the inside out. The prisoner’s daily cycle of labor, surveillance, and ideological messaging is designed to feel ordinary, almost harmless, until its true purpose becomes clear: to make him believe the system’s voice is his own.
The film draws on panopticon theory, where power functions best when the watcher doesn’t need to be present. By the time the prisoner resists and later begs for the routine to return, he’s already internalized the structure meant to control him. The absence of surveillance becomes more frightening than its presence.
Visually, the film contrasts the stark repetition of the cell with brief, dreamlike flashes of nature that hint at a life he’s forgetting. As the days collapse into one another, the origami birds become his last fragile act of self-expression.
In the end, Routine is about the quiet erasure of autonomy. It’s a story of how routine becomes ideology, and how a person can end up completing the work of their oppressor long after no one is left to watch.
Lead Actor: Brian Evans
Writer, producer, Director: MJ Golzari
First AD: Abisola Mohammed
Second AD: Alaa Al-Shemari
Director of photography: Deric Bucher
Assistant camera: Eli (James) Kaltenecker
Grip: Liam Wilson
Gaffer: Bernard Agorsor
Sound: Alex Smith
Production Designer: Princess Ibah
