See The Stunning, Student-Made Short That Got Hollywood’s Attention

22-year old Kaleb Lechowski discusses his head-turning film about the wrath of robot armies. Every once in a while a wunderkind director comes along who, with heaps of talent and bootstrapping, creates something with visual effects that look straight out of Hollywood. The Purchase Brothers did it when they created their alien invasion short Half-Life: Escape from City 17 on a measly $500. Then came Fede Alvarez’s Panic Attack, a similarly destructive (and low budget) short in which giant robots eviscerate Montevideo. Now, 22-year-old German film student Kaleb Lechowski has attracted big league attention with his riveting short R’ha. The story of an alien race betrayed by its machine army in search of independence, R’ha centers on a single interrogation scene between an uprising computer and its sentient captive. Looking to break free of the limitations of their de...