Beholder: The Short Film
Warm Lamp Games are the creators of Papers Please, a PC game about a man whose job is to examine passports and determine if any are fake. Its very premise asked questions about a surveillance state, and these themes were expanded in Warm Lamp’s follow-up, Beholder.
In Beholder the world IS a surveillance state and you are a landlord ordered by the government to spy on your tenants. If you spot anything the State would consider “treasonous” or against the law, or tenants in possession of anything currently banned, you are to report them immediately. But….should you? WILL you?
Russian filmmakers Kinodom and Walowar Premium have taken Beholder (and its sequel) and adapted them into a short film. A tenant is caught with a contraband bottle of pills, and the landlord orders them confiscated. But what lengths will the tenant go to get them back?
Beholder: The Short Film was written by Nikita Ordynskiy and Liliya Tkach, produced by Liliya Tkach and directed by Nikita Ordynskiy. The entire short is viewable on YouTube. Also, Beholder is currently 75% off on Steam.
You’re a State-installed Landlord in a totalitarian State. You must spy on tenants, peep, eavesdrop and profile! You must report on anyone capable of plotting subversion against the State.You MUST! But WILL you?