The Warrior's Tale: Premiere Night
A CCC member shot a fantasy epic for ¥40,000, then filled a cinema with it.
A CCC member made a fantasy epic for the price of a used car, and a hundred people showed up to watch it on the big screen.
The film is The Warrior’s Tale: Circle of Hatred, an original fantasy short by Brono Bajtala, a 32-year-old actor and filmmaker from Slovakia who has called Guangzhou home for the better part of a decade. Elves, dwarves, humans, magic, riders on horseback. A whole world built from scratch, in the lineage of Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Critics have called it possibly the most expansive short film foreign creators have made in China, and possibly the only original fantasy short by expat filmmakers in the country so far. Brono wrote it, directed it, edited it and produced it. Most of us have shipped less with more.
The budget was around ¥40,000. That number tells you everything about how it got made.
To shoot in Yunnan, Brono and co-producer Jan Slastan loaded the gear into a car and drove. Guangzhou to Lijiang and back, over 4,000 kilometres round trip, because that was the version of the plan that fit the money. Two days shooting in Lijiang, with DP and co-director Alexander Roux flying in to join. One day in Guangzhou. Two more in a Foshan studio. Then Brono sat down and cut it himself, almost every day for about two and a half months. Co-produced with Levi Webb, carried by an international cast of twelve, including Kevin Lee, Anina Net and Ariana Hardie.
On 17 December 2025, it premiered at CGV Cinemas in K11, Guangzhou. Red carpet, step-and-repeat, the cast on the carpet, Brono on stage introducing the thing he had been living inside for the better part of a year. Over a hundred people came. Cast and crew drove and flew in from Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Huizhou. The house was full and it was loud in the right way.
That is the part worth sitting with. When a CCC member ships something this ambitious, the room shows up. The scene filled a cinema for one of its own.
The film is now on the international festival circuit, which is why you cannot stream it yet. The team is deliberately keeping it offline to protect festival eligibility and the big-screen experience it was built for. Brono’s longer game is to grow it into a feature.
Follow the film’s journey at bronobajtala.com. For what the community is building next, find us on the CCC WeChat Official Account and Xiaohongshu (小红书).