In Season 3, Episode 2 of the Cine Bijou podcast, we had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with London-based writer-director Efosa Osaghae. Efosa’s newest project, ‘Phantom Carousel’, is a razor-sharp dark satire short film that turns an unsettling lens on modern workplace performance, tech tracking, and remote-work absurdities.
Produced by Lab Hugo, the film stars a Abirye Bukilwa (BBC/A24’s Dreaming Whilst Black) and Alec Christie (Great Expectations). Fresh off its selection for the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Los Angeles, ‘Phantom Carousel’ proves to be one of the most timely shorts of the year.
The Absurd Reality of Corporate Surveillance
‘Phantom Carousel‘ follows Bento Moura (Alec Christie), a man on the financial brink who takes a covert job monitoring remote workers for a shadowy compliance firm. Armed with a long camera lens and a Prius, Bento stalks remote employees in London to catch “productivity crimes”. These include mainly agency workers skipping calls to coders going to the gym during work hours[cite: 1].
However, when a routine audit escalates into breaking into the home of remote worker Olara Adeyemi (Abirye Bukilwa), Bento is forced to confront the extreme limits of staying employable in an invasive gig economy.
From Tech Campaigns to Indie Cinema
Efosa’s knack for dissecting modern culture comes naturally with a story surprisingly rooted in reality. Drawing from years of experience producing high-profile commercial campaigns for tech powerhouses like Facebook, Amazon, and Google, he brings a unique, insider perspective to corporate surveillance satire and the attention economy.
Following his debut short ‘Locusts Beyond a Phantasia‘ (acquired by ShortsTV) and his executive producer work on Millicent Hailes’ Perfect‘ (SXSW) starring Julia Fox, ‘Phantom Carousel’ marks a bold step forward as Efosa currently develops his debut feature film as director.
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