Premiered at Sundance London and created with the support of BBC Film, British-Nigerian filmmaker Caleb Femi captures the fraught emotions and fractured relationships that can emerge from tense situations in short film Giraffe. As two Black teenagers attempt to bury contraband in order to save their cultural identity from erasure by the UK government, their friendship is put to the test when new truths rise to the surface.

In a critique of the over-policing of Black British youth culture, and discourse on advancements in bio-hacking technology and its application in society, Femi meditates on the continual strain put upon Black adolescents under a government that forces them to endure increased surveillance. Set in a near-future, Giraffe explores the possible response of a community pushed to its limits, driven to react and adapt to disproportionate means of control.

Shot across four days on location in South London, Kwabena Ansah and D'angelo Graham star as the film’s leads, bringing the authentic camaraderie and chemistry needed to capture the brotherhood on camera. Situating familiar conflicts and concerns within a dystopian landscape where government measures have progressed to new extremes, Femi spins an intangible concept into something with terrifying plausibility under the weight of contemporary social issues.