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Martin Sofiedal has a Netflix film and three seasons of television behind him, but Temporal Takedown is what happens when a director goes back to basics with no committee in the room. His eight-minute sci-fi action short follows Sarah, a woman who can stop time for exactly one second. Cornered in an Oslo car workshop by four hostile mechanics after a tense poker-table standoff, she uses that single frozen second to rearrange the fight before it even starts, turning their own bodies and momentum against them.
Shot in three days on a budget of about $1,800, entirely practical, with no stunt doubles, the film wears its influences openly β the choreography of The Raid and Kingsman, and the way Everything Everywhere All at Once wove its central idea directly into its fight scenes. The result lands in HollyShorts' Action program on craft alone.
Key Takeaways
- An eight-minute sci-fi action short built entirely on one rule: Sarah can freeze time for a single second and rearrange a fight while she has it.
- Made for roughly $1,800 in a real Oslo mechanic's garage, in three days, with no stunt doubles.
- A decade-old idea that became Sofiedal's proof, to himself, that he could direct real hand-to-hand combat.
Sofiedal spoke with us about the idea he sat on for ten years, the previz that became the film's bible, and why he trusted a real garage over a built set.
Interview
What drew you to make this film, and why this story, why now?
After a Netflix film and three seasons of a TV series, I wanted to go back to basics, something small and hands-on with no committee involved. I'd been sitting on the idea for about ten years: someone who can freeze time for a limited window and use it to physically rearrange a fight while it's happening. I was moving more into action-oriented filmmaking and wanted to actually prove to myself, not just say, that I could direct a real hand-to-hand fight with proper choreography rather than the shootout-style action I'd done before. The idea genuinely came together talking with my wife Cecilie, who plays Sarah and has a black belt in Taekwondo, about wanting to dive deep into action together.
What surprised you most about the filmmaking process, creatively or logistically?
The previz. We spent weeks designing the choreography, then shot the whole fight on a phone in a gym before ever stepping on set, and that footage became our bible for the shoot. What surprised me was how much that process fed back into the writing itself. Choreography decisions started shaping character logic, like which frozen bodies Sarah could physically move, and that ended up defining her tactics scene by scene.
What was the hardest creative decision you made while making the film?
Trusting a real, unglamorous location over building a controlled one. We shot in an actual mechanic's garage in Oslo that was maybe 90% already dressed for us, working fast with practicals and a couple of movable hero lights because we knew lighting would eat the most time. Riskier than building a set, but the realism was worth it.
What moment in the film feels most like you, or like something only you could have made?
Comedy has always been a through-line in my work, regardless of what other genre I am working on. And I always like to add a bit of silliness into my work. I especially love the contrast between serious and silly. I have sort of coined the expression "kickass/dumbass" for myself, and the rule is simply: when things get too serious, cool, kickass, I flip it and add something silly, or dumbass. In Temporal Takedown the most "me" moment would be right after the fight, when she picks up the last surviving opponent, who tries very weakly pushing her away, and she just slaps him telling him to stop. It's such a silly moment after such a crazy fight. Nothing groundbreaking, but very me.
How does your film fit within, or push the boundaries of, its genre or form?
It sits right at the crossing of sci-fi and action, but the sci-fi isn't decoration on top, it's the engine of the choreography itself. We built every beat of the fight around one rule, that Sarah can freeze time for a limited window and rearrange bodies while she has it, so the power and the fight are literally the same thing rather than a visual effect added after. Stylistically we merged two things that don't usually sit together: the gritty, grounded hand-to-hand brutality of The Raid and the more stylized, slow-motion camera language of the Kingsman films. And we kept the world around the fight deliberately ordinary, a real garage, real dirt, real exhaustion, because if everything felt fantastical, the one supernatural rule wouldn't land as anything special.
What tool, technique, or collaborator helped most during production?
Previz, hands down. And my DP, who loves martial arts films and was hungry to shoot. He built a handheld rig, we called it the shotgun rig, two handles, autofocus only, no focus puller, so he could move exactly as fast as the stunt team.
What does it mean to have your film selected for HollyShorts, and where does it go next?
It means Temporal Takedown is standing in a lineup with work that has real budgets and full crews, and holding its own. We made this for about $1,800 in a real mechanic's garage in Oslo, so landing in HollyShorts' Action program is the clearest outside confirmation yet that the craft carries the film, not the money behind it. I made this to prove to myself that I could direct real hand-to-hand action. Having one of the world's premier festivals agree is exactly the validation that pushes me toward an action feature. It has had a decent little festival run, with HollyShorts being a massive and fitting finale. It will then live nicely online for everyone to watch and hopefully inspire other filmmakers with similar goals and ambitions.
Main Cast & Crew
- Written & Directed by Martin Sofiedal , the Norwegian writer-director behind Netflix's Blasted and NRK's Cammo
- Cecilie Svendsen as Sarah
- Magnus Aasheim as Ivan
- Ola Skancke Karlsen as Gregor, also Stunt Supervisor and choreography lead
- Mia Elise Sundal as Katya
- Bao Andre Nguyen as Emilio
- Director of Photography: Daniel Yul Kim
- Editor & VFX: Jens Peder Hertzberg
- Original Score: Roy Westad
- Sound Mixers: Hans Ekevi and Simon Skjong
- Produced by Martin Sofiedal & Cecilie Svendsen
- A Creative Lads Production
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