Short film · 16 minutes

Ringatory

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Ringatory is a surreal short thriller about an American in Berlin who boards the train to his first day at a new job and discovers it has no next stop. Trapped in a single endless car as three towering figures work their way down the aisle, he learns the only way off is to give up the one thing he has spent his life hiding.

Official selection, International Sound & Film Music Festival (ISFMF) 2026
  • Nominated · Best Score
  • Nominated · Horizon Award
Official selection, Verona International Short Film Festival 2026
  • Nominated · New Filmmakers Shorts Competition
  • Nominated · Best Original Score
Running time
16 minutes

Stills

A man in a long coat waits alone on an underground platform in Berlin. A still from Ringatory.
A man’s face in black and white, a smear of green paint across his mouth and cheeks. A still from Ringatory.
An older man with a grey beard sits in a train compartment and looks at the person opposite him. A still from Ringatory.
Three figures in red hoods under a strip light, the rest of the frame in black and white. A still from Ringatory.
The older man’s face in close-up, lit from one side, his eyes lowered. A still from Ringatory.
A small pale figure stands at the edge of a dark field under a night sky. A still from Ringatory.

From the director

In Berlin, I noticed how often I was being looked at on the street. What stayed with me was the specific feeling of being fixed on. Walking through Prenzlauer Berg, I would notice through my peripheral vision when someone’s head kept turning in my direction as we moved past each other. Their body would keep going. Their eyes would stay with me.

I did not want to wait for someone else to decide how a Black American man in Germany should be seen. The project is built around the tension and double consciousness of the Black American experience. If we do not author the gaze, we remain trapped inside it.

A mask calcifies. A performance settles in. You learn what face to wear before entering the room. If you spend your life being inspected, you can begin to live for an imagined observer.

I am interested in the return.

Maurice Grey · from the essay “What the [white] gaze wants” (opens in a new tab)

On set

A man in a dark coat and open white shirt faces the camera outdoors, with make-up scars on both cheeks and a metal brooch on his lapel. A camera monitor in the foreground, and behind it a man in a mask seated in the train car. Cast and crew talk between takes inside the train car, one holding a boom microphone. Two crew members fix a dark cloth to the outside of a train car under a glass roof. A man sits on an equipment case by a white brick wall, looking at his phone.

Photos by Riva Maria Garcia and Pablo Rojas Castillo

Cast

Patrick Walker 1
Ebenezer Adjei
The Witness
Maurice Grey
Patrick Walker 2
Safete Muchave
The Derelict
Christian Wewerka
The Commuter
Alissa Atanassova
Blockhead 1
Elyna Donchev
Blockhead 2
Laylani Night
Blockhead 3
Livia Sander
Extras
Julia, Alexander, Phil

Credits

Written and directed by
Maurice Grey
Director of photography
Pablo Rojas Castillo
Produced by
ouidembois, Spielplatz
Editing and VFX
Sasha Shuklin
Executive producers
Danny Miller, Maleia Baker, Justin Ricke
Editing assistant
Volodymyr Busol
Original score
Grégoire Simon
Sound designer and mixing engineer
bluenhorny via Sonarise
Color grading
Sasha Shuklin via MOGRADE Berlin
Sound editor
Serial Unit via Sonarise
Light
Tim Börnhoft
1st AC
Ksenia Gordiiash
1st AD
Sasha Gordiiash
Spark
Luca Stoll
Sound recordist
Theibauld Weiler
Production manager
Jeanne Jonquet
Key grip
Kirean Goebs
Costume designer
Giovanni Libro
HMU
Phibi Yeh
BTS
Riva Maria Garcia
German dialogue consultant
Sarah Peers

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