Award-Winning Immigration Short “Lucky Alien” Screens at Poppy Jasper International Film Festival

LOS ANGELES, CA — Award-winning filmmaker Jasmin Haugstuen Please continues the festival momentum of her acclaimed short film Lucky Alien with its official selection at the 20th annual Poppy Jasper International Film Festival, taking place this April. The screening follows a successful and decorated run at the Lady Filmmakers Festival, where the film received multiple accolades and established itself as one of the most emotionally resonant immigration stories on the festival circuit this year.

Based on real events from Haugstuen Please’s own life, Lucky Alien tells the story of a woman whose attempt to reunite with her partner in the United States spirals into a nightmarish ordeal after a bureaucratic paperwork error lands her in ICE detention. What begins as a routine administrative process quickly becomes a surreal confrontation with institutional power, isolation, and the fragility of personal freedom within an unforgiving immigration system.

Rather than relying on overt melodrama, the film employs biting absurdity, restrained performances, and moments of poetic stillness to capture the disorientation of detention. The result is a narrative that feels at once intimate and universal, exposing how easily love and stability can be disrupted by impersonal systems. The themes resonate with growing urgency as reports continue to surface of permanent residents detained at U.S. borders and an increase in green card revocations affecting families across the country.

Lucky alien reveals immigrant resilience

The 15-minute short stars Noa Athena, a rising Swedish-American actor whose understated, deeply internal performance anchors the film’s emotional core. Athena’s portrayal balances vulnerability with quiet resilience, allowing the audience to experience the psychological toll of detention without sensationalism. She is supported by a strong ensemble cast that reinforces the film’s sense of institutional claustrophobia and emotional isolation.

Shot in Los Angeles and produced by Fake ID Productions, Lucky Alien is described by its filmmaker as a deeply personal protest. The story is told through the privileged eyes of a Norwegian immigrant moving to the United States for love—an intentional perspective that underscores how even those with relative safety, nationality, and resources can find themselves suddenly powerless. In doing so, the film challenges assumptions about who is vulnerable within the immigration system and why.

Beyond its political relevance, Lucky Alien functions as a love letter to those navigating life between cultures, languages, and countries. It captures the emotional limbo of immigrants who belong everywhere and nowhere at once, and the quiet endurance required to survive systems not built for empathy. The film’s visual language mirrors this tension, juxtaposing sterile institutional spaces with moments of human connection that feel fleeting and fragile.

Bold cinema sparks new voices

Haugstuen co-founded Fake ID Productions in 2010 and has built a career focused on character-driven stories that interrogate power, identity, and belonging. In addition to her filmmaking work, she is the creator of ShuffleFest, a 10-minute play festival now entering its third year, which champions emerging voices and experimental storytelling.

She is currently developing her next project, SPACE T.I.T.S., a genre-bending science-fiction comedy slated to shoot later this year, signaling a sharp tonal shift while maintaining her interest in subversive narratives.

As Lucky Alien continues its festival journey, its impact lies not only in its timely subject matter but in its refusal to flatten the immigrant experience into a single narrative. Instead, it offers a precise, personal account of how systems fail individuals—and how survival, even in moments of powerlessness, can still be an act of resistance.

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Watch the new trailer now

Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtSEokT_eqE