A Day Full of Laughter.
Every year, families face an impossible choice: watch a parent fade in the home they’ve always known, or make the harder, more loving decision to get them real care. Crocodile Smile follows a young man who gives an elderly woman the best day of her life, one she’ll forget by morning, to tell the story most people get wrong about what it means to choose real care for someone you love.
The Film
A birthday adventure, and the truth underneath it
A dutiful young man takes a charismatic elderly woman on a vibrant birthday bucket-list adventure through Dubai, hot yoga, waffles, a thrift-shop dance number, ice cream under the city lights. It’s warm, it’s funny, and it’s building toward something the audience won’t see coming.
Genre — Sentimental Comedy-Drama
Runtime — 10 minutes
Setting — Dubai, UAE
Why This Film Exists
Beyond the story
01.
Destigmatizing assisted living
Choosing assisted living isn’t giving up on a parent, it’s often the most loving, difficult decision a family can make. This film reframes that choice as devotion, not abandonment.
02.
Countering the “they didn’t want to deal with it” narrative
The public story is almost always about neglect. The real story is invisible labor, financial strain, and grief that starts long before anyone else notices something is wrong.
03.
A call to seek help before it’s too late
Cognitive decline is easy to deny, a good day looks like proof nothing is wrong. The film’s structure mirrors exactly how families miss the signs until a crisis forces the issue.
04.
Told from lived proximity, not research
This script comes from personal closeness to elder care and cognitive decline, which is why the smaller, unglamorous details ring true rather than performed
Get Involved
What we’re looking for
We’re a Dubai-based production actively building out our locations, cast, and props for this shoot. If any of this fits what you have, we’d love to talk.
Locations
We are looking for active, community-centric spaces to serve as the backdrop for our story: a gym, a diner/cafe, a vibrant thrift shop, a fast-food counter, and a care facility exterior.
- Hot yoga studio / gym, floor space for multiple mats
- Diner with bright interiors & window seating
- Thrift shop with a changing room & open floor
- Fast food counter, no landmark required
- Unbranded street segment, good ambient lighting
- Old age home exterior with driveway access
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Marketing Assets: You will receive professional, color-graded footage and high-resolution stills shot in your space to use for your own social media and marketing.
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Screen Credit: Your business will receive an official “Location Partner” credit in the film and on all festival marketing materials.
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Minimal Disruption: We run a tight, professional set designed to capture what we need quickly without shutting down your daily operations.
Secondary Cast
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- Yoga instructor (Female)
- Bodybuilder (gym attendee) Male
- Waitress & waiter
- Server
- Passerby
- Caretakers (x2)
- Gym Atendees (x6)
- Thrift Shop Atendees (x6)
- Restaurant Atendees (x8)
*Open call, all experience levels.
- Reel material, a professionally shot, festival-submitted short is a real credit, especially for someone building toward acting
- Being part of something with actual festival ambition (HollyShorts, Cannes shorts, TIFF) rather than another random film
- The experience itself, working alongside an award-winning crew.
Props & Wardrobe
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- Light blue top & summer hat (key continuity piece)
- Visor cap, puffer jacket, timberland boots, sports jersey
- Working polaroid camera & film
- A corkboard and a small vintage photo frame
The Team
Backed by a track record of award-winning shorts and festival recognition, including character-driven work on neurodivergence and mental health.
Director:
Joe Alexander
Producer:
Jara Del Mundo
Script:
Maven The Poet
DOP:
Nikhil Indulkar
Marketing:
Nevaeh Alexander
