the WORD Editor Gregg W. Morris
Excerpt (Paraphrased) From a Publicity Pitch: AFTER DARK is a gripping exploration of what happens when empathy collides with fear when a stranger asks for help. Both unsettling and thought-provoking, the film compels us to question just how far we are willing to go for someone we don’t know. Fresh off winning Best International Short Film at the Foyle Film Festival, this tense short has now qualified for consideration at the 2026 Oscars. “Let us know your thoughts.”
AFTER DARK confronts the unsettling questions that arise when empathy collides with fear, prejudice, and survival instinct. On his way home one night, Kristian encounters a young woman in desperate need of help. He agrees to accompany her to the train station, but as the night unfolds, he begins questioning both her story and himself. Through this tense and intimate encounter, After Dark explores the contradictions of human behavior, where compassion clashes with fear, and kindness is tested by preconceptions. The film was Oscar-qualified after winning Best International Short Film at the Foyle Film Festival in 2024, cementing Forbes’ reputation as one of Scandinavia’s most exciting emerging directors.
So Be It, Here Are My Thoughts
AFTER DARK is a superb, thought-provoking and emotionally resonant film. I consider it a polished rare gem but not for the reasons provided by the publicity blurb. It’s a scream of a Cinematic Rorschach Test, pinging the conscious, subconscious and unconscious as audiences – as I did – draw on their experiences and imaginations as they connect and trying to interpret what is really going on the screen, what the story is really about. interpretations would be diverse..
The storytelling is open-ended, the symbolism thick, and emotional undercurrents deeply personal. It’s a superbly done film short that invites, or even demands, reflection and conversation long after the credits roll – as if it had the essence of a full-feature nestled even though the film is about 10 minutes running.
What the film publicity described about the film moved me and had me thinking and reflecting about life. But when I screened the film – more than once – I was surprised. Yes, the elements of empathy and fear and crossing paths with strangers are there … but I just have my own interpretation of how they fit into the film because of the way the it moved me.
Iain Forbes, AFTER DARK Director
If AFTER DARK doesn’t get at least a notable nod from the Oscar Powers That Be, it’s safe to assume something may be really rotten in …” – and so on. {It’s going to make its presence known regardless of whatever happens or doesn’t happen at the Oscars.}
So: There’s a Kafkaesque feel to this film-short ,though there are no contentious forces of bureaucracies and nonsensical systems disorienting, complex, absurd, illogical, and oppressive.
Rather, it’s as if Director Forbes has imbued his story with a transcendent cinematic panache pushed one’s buttons, resulting in an intense feeling of connectedness. Kristian (played by Simen Bostad) is walking home one night when he meets a young woman, Mia (played by Billie Barker), who appears to be lost and needs help finding the train station – and in they go into a rabbit hole.
According to Forbes, interviewed by a magazine, the guts for AFTER DARK is based on a personal encounter he had in crossed paths with a female stranger late one night. AFTER DARK set off subtle Déjà vu feelings about inexplicable experiences I might have had with people I encounter in the street – one of the reasons I never leave home without a notebook, camera and a tape recorder.
Kristian (played by Simen Bostad)
Mia (played by Billie Barker)
Alongside its Foyle win, AFTER DARK also received Best Short Film at Corto Noir (Italy, 2024) and Best National Film at the West Nordic International Film Festival (Norway, 2025). Iain Forbes is a Scottish/Norwegian director based in Oslo. A graduate of the Norwegian Film School, Iain Forbes’s short REVISTED won a Student Academy Award in 2023. His latest AFTER DARK continues his run of acclaimed shorts, following SNOWLMAN (2015) and SEMPER FI (2017). Forbes also brings extensive experience as a first assistant director on Norwegian feature films including DISCO (2019), KNERTEN OG SIØRMEN (2020) and DANCING QUEEN IN HOLLYWOOD (2025).
AFTER DARK Producer Oda Roth is an Oslo-based producer and graduate of the Norwegian Film School (2022). She has since produced several shorts and creative projects, quickly establishing herself as a strong new voice in Norwegian cinema. The cast is led by Simen Bostad as Kristian. A graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney, Simen has performed on both stage and screen, including with Oslo’s acclaimed Antiteatret. On television, he is known for roles in Fling (2023), Bloodride (2020), and Knekt (2023).
Opposite him, Billie Barker plays Mia. Barker trained at Romerike Folk High School and holds a degree in film production from Westerdals. She is best known for her role as Signy in Netflix’s Ragnarök (2021–2023), as well as appearances in Nach (2021), Venner før (2022), and several short films.
