Review: "Stay in the Car" (2026) Short Film

There is a new short film that is a prime example of ‘show, don’t tell’ called Stay in the Car from director Calvin Ghaznavi. Based on real events, Stay in the Car is a story about a single night in the life of Salem, a fifteen-year-old who rides along with her mother and her mother’s partner as they go do a job. When that job turns violent, Salem finds herself stuck in the car and in the middle of a getaway. As events unfold, Salem is torn between trying to get out of a bad situation and staying in the car.
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Ghaznavi delivers a powerful, poignant film that raises a number of questions with a story that doesn’t rely on dialogue. The script by Amanda Ross uses the familiar phrase we heard as kids as an effective punctuation to each scene. Every time we hear it, there is a different connotation to it. That is due to its delivery by Ashley Alva who plays Dee, the mother. She was great as a woman with an internal struggle between doing the job she was hired to do and protecting her daughter. Of course, bringing Salem along in the first place was a bad choice, but you get the impression that Dee felt like there was no other option. All of that comes through in Alva’s performance. Lara Hunter shines as Salem. Ghaznavi puts us right next to Salem in the car, never leaving her side. We see and feel her fear, confusion, and resolution thanks to Hunter’s body language and facial expressions. We experience the same conflict she feels on whether to “stay in the car” as she is ordered to, or to flee. The audience is Salem. 

Stay in the Car also looks great, not only in the lighting but also with the camera work from cinematographer Conrad Holzman. Nearly the entire story is told from inside the car, with Salem in frame. The creative use of the focus and alternate angles keeps things visually interesting and adds to the emotion of the scenes. Stay in the Car is a short film you should seek out if it is playing at a festival near you. One of the reasons I love watching short films is that they get in, tell their story, and get out. When they are crafted as well as this short is, it will stay with you long after the runtime has ended.