Eszter Kishazy
OASIS CENTER

Pre Production Financial Grant

ABOUT THE FILM: A lonely kleptomaniac woman longs to be caught, as she believes that only someone who finally sees her true self, the thief, can love her - but the timid security guard does not notice her, as he can not see reality on his security monitors.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Oasis Center is a story about how one might capture another person’s attention in an alienated world where intimacy seems possible only through theft. The story of the Thief and the Security Guard speaks of a deep loneliness in a world where imagination and reality blur, where most people no longer see what they are looking at, and where genuine intimacy has become nearly impossible.

The Thief’s obsessive desire to be caught is one of the central elements of the story. Theft transcends itself: it becomes a ritual meant to draw attention. My deep connection to the story stems from this emotional landscape – when a person’s quiet cries for help go unheard, the longing can turn into an inescapable compulsion. The Security Guard begins from a similarly helpless position: as he stares at the monitors, reality gradually starts to dissolve in his mind.

Creating a mystical atmosphere with heightened performances and cold visuality is essential for the story – while the film’s slightly stylized approach departs from realism, it remains rooted in it, building on deeply human needs: above all, the desire for genuine connection.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Eszter Kishazy is a Budapest-based writer and director working across music videos, commercials, narrative and documentary projects. Her first three shorts premiered at the Academy Award qualifying Friss Hús International Film Festival and have since been screened at a number of festivals. OASIS CENTER is her fourth short film project.

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