As police sirens desperately wail, Amber's camera cuts between two figures sat facing one another; the room chokes on claustrophobia and shadows.

   A woman is gagged, a belt keeps her mouth ajar, her eyes stare onwards agape. Sat prone opposite is a hooded figure, a fox mask shielding their identity. Yet, as Theo Gee's short film continues and the belt and mask are removed, we watch on as we realise how little has truly been exposed in this anxious, suspenseful thriller.



   Filmed in just one location, with three actors and a minimum of props, Amber is a winning exercise in cinematic minimalism. Set in the midst of a crime scene gone wrong, Ian Bousher and Theo Gee's script unfolds to show a robbery falling apart as three desperate individuals find themselves plotting against one another in an increasingly nerve wracking twenty-three minutes of escalating panic.

   Despite its low budget, Amber is a movie which expertly wrings the tension out of every one of its seconds. Who are the people we're watching? What do they want? Are we certain everyone will survive?



   Supported by an eerie, ominous soundtrack by Ramzey Sid, Amber is a smart, inventive film which is impossible not to admire. Gee's short shows it is the size of  an idea, not the budget, which truly matters.

   Amber is available to view at  https://vimeo.com/150534384