MERCY is the kind of short film that sneaks up on you, then refuses to let you go. With razor-sharp emotional precision and a moral complexity rarely seen in short-form storytelling, writer-director Hedda Mjøen delivers a haunting examination of loyalty, conscience, and the uncomfortable space between accusation and truth.

What begins as a simple supermarket encounter spirals into a psychological earthquake. Guro, confronted with her estranged best friend Petter — a man now accused of rape — is thrust into a dilemma that slices at the heart of human instinct: What do we owe the people we once loved? And at what cost?

Mjøen isn’t interested in easy answers. Instead, she leans into the gray areas, building tension not through spectacle but through silence, hesitation, and the quiet violence of doubt. The film’s power lies in its refusal to moralize. It trusts the audience enough to sit with the discomfort, to interrogate their own impulses, and to feel the emotional and ethical weight of Guro’s predicament.

The production is anchored by an extraordinary team. Producer Stian Skjelstad — whose feature A Human Positionscreened at Rotterdam, San Sebastian, and Chicago — brings a grounded, art-house sensibility that amplifies the film’s psychological realism. Producer Oda Kruse, founder of Kruela Film and seasoned collaborator on works like War Sailorand Let the River Flow, adds creative rigor and emotional depth, helping sculpt MERCY into a piece that feels both intimate and universal.

Behind them stands the legacy of Ole Søndberg, founder of True Content Productions and creative force behind Beck, Wallander, and the Millennium trilogy. It’s a pedigree that shows: MERCY carries the same tautness, intelligence, and willingness to ask hard questions that define the best Scandinavian crime and character-driven cinema.

No wonder the film premiered to acclaim at the 48th Norwegian Short Film Festival — winning the Oscar-qualifying Best Norwegian Short Award and propelling itself into the 2026 Academy Awards® conversation.

MERCY is fearless, piercing, and achingly human. A masterwork of moral tension — one that will echo long after the final frame.