Devin (Silver) lives with his mom (Carey), sister and volatile stepfather (Reed) in a comfortable middle-class Californian suburb. Devin’s mother becomes mildly concerned when her son develops an obsession with aliens, and insists he is visited at night by creatures from outer space. Thinking it will discourage his fantasies, Devin’s school teacher asks for some proof of these extra-terrestrial night calls, but discovers more than she bargained for.

Picking up several best-film prizes at festivals in the US and Europe, Strangers is a powerful study of childhood fear and victimisation. It was director Asher Goldstein’s thesis project from NYU film school and handles a sensitive subject with exceptional maturity.

“The film was an amalgamation of experiences having spoken to friends,” Goldstein explains, “There’s also a bit of my own life in there. It was a subject matter that I wasn’t personally affected by, but had really struck a chord with me. I feel very much connected to my own childhood and I remember very deeply how frightening it was to be a kid sometimes. Children have such awe and wonder in their eyes, and I think it’s one of the most devastating things when that innocence is stolen from them.”

When Goldstein was little he was afraid of aliens, so used this as the basis for Devin’s escapism, as well as borrowing from Spielberg. “ET is one of my favourite movies but it scared me to death when I was a little kid so it grew out of that. I went into my head and said, OK if this was me, if I was experiencing these things what would be my escape, how would I personify this terror?”

Made largely with a group of friends and other fledging filmmakers, Goldstein concentrated on putting his money in the right place to hire professional actors and ensure quality production values were achieved. The film cost $15,000, a relatively high budget for a short, and financed through student loans Goldstein is still paying off. He invested in shooting on film as opposed to video and hired a “top-notch” DP, Joachim Jung. The results speak for themselves;  the film’s slick look and feel make it stand out from most other shorts.

Strangers could be creepy and sinister, with its abused child, mean stepfather and alien visitors. Instead it is far more resonant. Quietly and steadily it’s seemingly innocent tale of an over active imagination, snowballs into something far more disturbing, at a rate that becomes almost unbearable. Through a strong screenplay and superb editing by Jon Schwartz, this 14-minute short tells the story not only of innocence lost, but of the destruction of a value system a mother should be able to take for granted. The emotional tour de force behind the punch that comes in the final few minutes is due in no small part by some convincing dramatics from Goldstein’s excellent cast.

Strangers benefits from a director prepared to go the extra mile with budget, production and actors, all essential elements for a good short film, but matches this with something that cost him nothing: a powerful idea, sensitively thought through and exceptionally well executed.