Writer-director Glen Merzer stages an intimate ticking-clock film set in 1993 St. Louis that keeps four characters trapped together for less than ninety minutes as buried tensions erupt; production and release details will follow.
Buddhist Blues is designed to play out in absolute real time, forcing continuous dramatic pressure across the film’s sub–90-minute runtime.
The story follows four characters—Lou, his cousin Susan, Susan’s ex-husband Nick, and Lou’s girlfriend Lili—whose concealed conflicts and cultural tensions collide in a single apartment.
The production emphasizes theater-like staging and precision acting, with specific credits for production design, cinematography, costume, editing, and original score.
# What the film is
Buddhist Blues is a feature written and directed by Glen Merzer that deliberately unfolds in absolute real time. The film traps viewers in a single location and a single uninterrupted timeframe: less than ninety minutes during which four characters face escalating conflict. The producers describe the approach as borrowing the pressure of live theater and denying cinematic shortcuts such as time jumps or ellipses.
# Where and when it's set
The story takes place in 1993 in St. Louis. The time and place are part of the film's texture and help shape the characters' histories and social dynamics.
# The central characters and premise
The dramatic engine is simple: Lili arrives at Susan's home ahead of Lou, and once she enters the apartment the story becomes a countdown. Over roughly ninety minutes, long-buried secrets, family wounds, and cultural friction come to the surface and change all four lives by the film's end.
# How the real-time device shapes the experience
# Creative team and technical craft
The announcement highlights several named creatives: Joanna Samorow-Merzer handled production design, Hezekiah Condron is credited for cinematography, Hannah Gates for costume design, Ryan Meyer for editing, and Travis Puntarelli composed the original score. Producers named include Aaron Markham (producer), Brian Herskowitz (consulting producer), with Tyler Kanczuzewski and Mark Glick as executive producers. The production emphasizes a claustrophobic, intimate aesthetic to match the real-time storytelling.
# Tone and influences
The release positions Buddhist Blues within a lineage of screen and stage works that use continuous-time techniques to heighten pressure. The announcement cites television and film precedents for real-time storytelling—24, Rope, Before Sunset, and 12 Angry Men—as context for the creative choice, and frames the film as an intimate, explosive character drama rather than a genre spectacle.
# Release status
The film was announced by independent production companies Walker & Harley Films and Fathom Studios. Distribution details and festival premiere dates are to be announced in the coming weeks. A promotional link was provided for more information: https://buddhistblues.com/
# Why readers might care
Buddhist Blues aims to deliver a concentrated dramatic experience that relies on sustained performances and tight production design rather than effects or montage. Readers interested in tightly staged, character-driven cinema or in experiments that adapt theatrical pressure for film will find the approach and creative team noteworthy.
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