Veiled Glass

About

A psychological science-fiction noir set in Dubai in 2079. A short film of 11 to 14 minutes, and the proof of concept for a feature.

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Synopsis

The story, up to the scan

A sandstorm tears across Dubai. Two bloodied partners stagger into a quiet alley and breathe. Then Corin looks at his cybernetic arm and says, “It let us go.”

Hours earlier, Corin sits restrained in a room whose walls are living machines. Inspector Maeve Gray has three victims, one of them Kaden, a friend who trusted Corin. Corin has been seeing the killing in flashes and has not told her.

The evidence does not hold, and the room seems to answer them before they move. Maeve offers a deep neural scan with no warrant. It would end her career.

Deep neural scan

Subject
Maddox, C. E.
Warrant
None on file
Authorisation
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Logged to
Gray, M. · Inspector

Awaiting signature

Director’s statement

Veiled Glass is a detective story about the things we carry. The grief that won’t resolve. The questions that won’t close. The tremor in a hand that refuses to be fixed.

Erik Magelssen · Writer and director

I work with AI every day, and the question I keep bringing home is about trust: what happens between two people when one of them can no longer be sure of his own mind? Corin and Maeve are partners first. The case tests whether loyalty holds once certainty goes.

I wanted to make it the way independent films can now be made: one real room and practical light, with AI and VFX building the city around it. Blade Runner 2049, True Detective and Arrival shaped it, along with Villeneuve’s architecture and the quiet devastation of Wong Kar-wai.

It is a small film about a large fear: that the thing you are most sure of might not be yours.

Why this story

Why this story matters

We already let machines remember for us: photos, feeds and records that never forget. Yet human memory is rebuilt each time we recall it, so two honest witnesses rarely agree.

Veiled Glass puts those two facts in one room. A detective cannot trust his own mind, and his partner must choose between procedure and loyalty. The film asks who owns a memory, who may look inside a mind without a warrant, and what trust is worth once certainty is gone. These questions are no longer science fiction. The film sets them in Dubai, 2079, and makes them personal.

The evidence

Two flaws

A worn analog clock reflected in a dusty window overlooking Dubai.
A clock caught in a window disagrees with the time of death. A visual study of the first clue.
Two different stone rooms with matching diagonal shadows.
Two crime scenes, shot on different cameras. The same shadow sits at the same angle in both.
Two evidence photographs on a worn table, between a human hand and a matte cybernetic arm.
Visual development The evidence on the table.

“Nobody tells it the same way twice.”

Maeve

At a glance

The facts

Title
Veiled Glass
Written and directed by
Erik Magelssen
Genre
Psychological science-fiction noir: an interrogation thriller that breaks into a fight
Setting
Dubai, 2079. A sandstorm night, an interrogation room with living walls, an old stone alley
Runtime
11–14 minutes. The plan allows 12 minutes 45 seconds, including credits
Format
English language. 2.39:1
Production
Two days in a Singapore studio: one practical room, made large with AI and VFX
Status
In pre-production
Part of
The proof of concept for the Veiled Glass feature

Credits

Credits

Written and directed by
Erik Magelssen
Cast
Not yet cast. The faces on this site are concept art.

Concept art

Frames from the story

Made with AI image tools to show the look. The film itself is still to be shot.

Two bloodied partners against an alley wall, a sandstorm filling the street behind them.
Concept art The alley. Two partners against the wall, the storm behind them.
Corin at a steel table, his cybernetic left arm and human right hand resting on the metal.
Concept art Corin at the steel table: one human hand, one cybernetic arm.
Corin and Maeve facing each other across a long steel table under a single overhead light.
Concept art The interrogation room, one light overhead.

What comes next

A feature in development

This short is the first look at Veiled Glass, a feature in development set in the same city.

Meet the characters Talk about the feature