Ridley Scott has found time in between shooting Hollywood blockbusters (he's currently in post production on "Napoloen", while "Gladiator 2" is coming in 2024) to return to commercials and make a short film for Samsung. What's more, it's filmed entirely on a Samsung Galaxy phone.

The short film, "Behold," is the tale of a young boy living in a gritty urban environment who faces hostility and aggression at every turn. But then, he unexpectedly discovers a horse lying hidden in a junk-strewn lock-up. After singing "Amazing Grace" to the animal, he takes it out to the countryside and sets it free. The film concludes with some lines of poetry, recited by Jeremiah "Sugar J Brown," a young British-Jamaican writer, on the theme of freedom, and ends with the message "Do as you would be done by," 

The ad was written by Ridley Scott's son Luke Scott and was based on an idea from the Ridley Scott Creative Group's newly established creative division. It was created in association with Plan’it and Cheil, and with VFX from Untold Studios. Filming took place in December in Kaliste, a suburb of Marseille.

All the footage was filmed using the Galaxy S23 Ultra phone. In a behind-the-scenes film, Scott describes the film as "poetic" and comments that he found the idea of filming on a phone an "interesting challenge." "I like being able to go into real rooms and real environments where a lot of spaces are very small, so it's very useful," he adds.

The spot was unveiled last week at Samsung's "Galaxy Unpacked" event in San Francisco, highlighting the camera capabilities of the Galaxy S23 Ultra. It will air on Samsung's social and digital channels, but there are no plans for TV buys at this stage.  Samsung also plans a separate upcoming film, shot on a Galaxy S23 Ultra, from South Korean director Na Hong-jin.

The collaboration marks the second time in recent years that Scott’s production company RSA Films have created narrative storytelling for Samsung Galaxy. In 2021 it unveiled a puppetry-based short form director Joe Wright, "Princess and Peppernose," which was captured entirely with a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.