“Tretten” by Maxime Vaux: A Thoughtful Exploration of Identity and Anxiety in Digital Age | Best Short of the Season

IndieX Film Fest is pleased to announce that Tretten, directed by Maxime Vaux (France), has been named Best Short of the Season for March/April 2025.

Tretten is a carefully composed, introspective 30-minute psychological horror film that explores the growing tension between personal identity and digital image.

The story follows Llona (played with quiet intensity by Pauline Hita), a yoga influencer increasingly overwhelmed by her dependence on social media and the pressure of maintaining a carefully curated public persona. In search of clarity and peace, she travels to a spiritual retreat in Norway. However, rather than finding relief, she becomes unsettled by the retreat’s isolating atmosphere and its intense, impressionistic, and subtly invasive rituals. These are embodied by Anna (played by Karina Orr), a figure both authoritative and ambiguous, whose presence deepens Llona’s disorientation and unease.

The film traces Llona’s unraveling with deliberate pacing, highlighting how digital life and emotional well-being can become deeply and dangerously entangled.

Vaux uses horror genre conventions to his advantage, building dread through atmosphere rather than spectacle. The cinematography is stark and often cold, mirroring Llona’s internal fragmentation. Sound design plays a central role in sustaining tension: silence, subtle distortions, and ambient textures are layered to evoke a constant sense of unease. The horror emerges not from overt threats or jump scares, but from the creeping realization that Llona may be slipping beyond recovery—observed by an audience that is either unable or unwilling to see the truth.

Maxime Vaux previously taught cinema at the University of Paris and the Tribudom documentary school. His background includes assistant directing (Boomerang by François Favrat) and producing documentaries (A Time as President by Yves Jeuland). In 2017, he founded his creative studio Signs, producing numerous advertisements and music videos. In 2023, he co-founded Signs Production with Charles Taïeb—a company dedicated to genre and animated films. Tretten reflects this trajectory, blending an academic approach to structure and theme with a strong visual and stylistic sensibility.

With this recognition, IndieX Film Fest highlights Tretten as a standout project from the March/April 2025 season. Its thoughtful use of the horror genre to explore contemporary themes—identity, anxiety, and digital performance—demonstrates the power of short-form storytelling in tackling complex emotional and cultural questions.

IndieX Film Fest is a Los Angeles-based international short film festival committed to celebrating bold and independent voices in cinema. We congratulate Maxime Vaux, Pauline Hita, Karina Orr, and the entire Tretten team on this well-earned recognition.