Sometimes the most effective way to tackle the idiocy of nationalism is to push it all the way into absurdity. That appears to be the strategy behind “Straight Circle,” the feature debut from writer-director Oscar Hudson, which arrives in U.S. theaters this fall after becoming a major festival breakout in 2025.
The darkly comic anti-war satire stars real-life twins Elliott Tittensor and Luke Tittensor as soldiers from two enemy nations assigned to the same remote border post in a seemingly endless desert. Their job is largely ceremonial, a symbol of an uneasy truce, and the pair spend their days contending with boredom, heat, and their mutual hostility.
Then a goat herder wanders across the border. From there, the distinction between countries, allegiances, and eventually the soldiers themselves begins to collapse as their isolation gives way to something much stranger and more nightmarish.
Hudson, previously known for music videos for Radiohead, James Blake, and Bonobo, shot the film in South Africa. “Straight Circle” premiered at Venice Critics’ Week last September and walked away with both the Grand Prize and the prize for Most Innovative Film. It later won Best Director at the Marrakech International Film Festival, where jury president Bong Joon Ho apparently offered the rather concise assessment: “Fucking great.”
The film continued on the festival circuit through TIFF, BFI London, AFI Fest, Taipei, and elsewhere. At Taipei, it won both the Grand Prize and the Taiwan Directors Guild Award, with the jury praising its examination of borders and cultural identities as artificial constructs.
Neil Maskell also appears in the film. Hudson wrote and directed, with Christopher Ripley serving as cinematographer, Fouad Gaber as editor, and Maxwell Sterling composing the score.
Joint Venture acquired U.S. rights in January and will release “Straight Circle” theatrically nationwide this fall. No specific release date has been announced yet. Watch the trailer below.
