ZONA ZERO

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL — A Romanian DIY Sci-fi Short Film

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THE CHOSEN PROTOCOL: SYMBIOSIS / PUKINO

ZONA ZERO — Christmas Special · 17–18 min · Action / Sci-Fi / Drama / Mystery

A classified Christmas night in Bucharest: infiltration, a “simple delivery for a kid”, and an alien intelligence wired directly into human DNA.

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Classified Dossier

Internal dossier-style document. What you see here is the cleaned-up version — no major spoilers, just enough to understand where the Christmas Special sits in the ZONA ZERO universe.

CODE NAME The Chosen Protocol: SYMBIOSIS / PUKINO
STATUS Classified · Restricted Access
DURATION 17–18 min (short film · bridge between Season 1 & Season 2)
GENRE action / sci-fi / drama / mystery
TONE cold–warm, tense but emotional
COLOR PROFILE cyan + orange · pulsing lights · glitch artifacts
FORMAT 4K · 24fps · 2.35:1 (letterbox)
LOCATION Bucharest · Christmas night · streets, park, secret lab

Story Overview

On Christmas night, a motorcycle courier accepts a simple job “for my little girl”. It should have been an easy ride and a quick tip. Instead, he gets pulled between bodyguards, a Christmas market, a frozen park, a teenage hacker named Ali, a giant bodyguard… and a secret underground lab where an alien intelligence called PUKINO is kept alive by a radioactive stone.

Act Breakdown

ACT 1 · INFILTRATION

Villa Infiltration

Cold lights, steam, a ninja on the rooftop. Shini infiltrates a secured villa and the bodyguards drop one by one: neck twisted on the stairs, strike to the throat, an execution just outside frame. At the poker table, someone wipes blood off his hands: “They don’t want to talk… or they really don’t know anything.”
In the basement, two hostages. In the final room, Alexa and Antonius look dead. BLACK SCREEN: ONE YEAR EARLIER…

ACT 2 · CHRISTMAS NIGHT

Christmas in the City

Christmas market, mulled wine, warm lights. Alexa and Shini want, for once, a normal evening. Her phone buzzes. A delivery request “for my little girl… she’s still small.” Alexa wants a break. Shini still accepts the job: it’s for a kid, it’s Christmas, and “we could use the extra cash.”

ACT 3 · THE DELIVERY

Frozen Park & Ali

In a frozen park, Shini meets Ali, 16, calm, too intelligent for her age. Handing over the package looks harmless until three boys start mocking her, push her around, and the whole thing turns into a cinematic slow-motion fight. Key line: “Yeah… I’m the one who blew up your apartment.”

ACT 4 · BODYGUARD

Fight with the Giant

From the shadows, Ali’s bodyguard steps in: 1.90m, black suit, calm. A fight sequence in the vein of Matrix / Daredevil: heavy hits, falls on asphalt, reflections in shop windows. Shini goes down. The bodyguard lifts him up just to say one word: “Respect.”
Ali: “Come with me. I want to show you something.”

ACT 5 · OFFSET

Dark Comedy Breather

A breath between violence and revelation. Small, dry jokes between Ali and Shini: the contrast between a tired adult and a 16-year-old genius who talks about blowing up an apartment like it was just “a test that worked”.

ACT 6 · SYMBIOSIS

The Lab & PUKINO

In the lab, one tank holds a translucent alien body, another holds an incomplete human body. The “normal” USB stick Shini has carried for years becomes the key: inside it is living matter, technology that does not come from Earth. The biomechanical glove, human DNA, the radioactive rock beneath the tank, and one name: PUKINO — Psychotronic Uplink for Kinetic Interference and Neural Operations.
Telepathic voice: “Hello, Shini. You finally came.”

Characters

PROTAGONIST

Shini

Motorcycle courier, caught between the street, mafia and alien tech. He doesn’t want to hurt people, but sometimes has to be “the bad guy” to protect what’s good. On Christmas night, one “small job” puts him face-to-face with his real destiny.

ANCHOR

Alexa

Shini’s partner and the only one trying to keep him tethered to a normal life. She just wants to drink mulled wine, not count bodyguards. Her appearance in the episode is short, but emotionally heavy.

ENGINEER OF CHAOS

Ali (16)

Calm, hyper-intelligent, with dry one-liners. The girl who casually says:
“Yeah… I’m the one who blew up your apartment.”
A prodigy in neuro-nanotech, obsessed with biological symbiosis between humans and AI.

SHIELD

Ali’s Bodyguard

1.90m, black suit, neutral face. He doesn’t talk much. When he does, it’s only to say: “Respect.” He’s the physical wall between Ali and the rest of the world.

ENTITY

PUKINO

Psychotronic Uplink for Kinetic Interference and Neural Operations.
An alien entity kept alive by a radioactive rock, unable to breathe our atmosphere. It speaks telepathically, but only has enough energy left for a single question.

Symbiosis & Tech

Ali’s glove is not a gadget. It’s an interface between blood and code. The physical stick that Shini carries on him contains living matter — a piece of technology that arrived together with PUKINO. When the two connect, they trigger a symbiosis: the human body becomes the hardware, and the alien intelligence becomes its software.

For Season 2, this episode is ground zero for the “hybrid” concept: ordinary people with access to impossible abilities — at a price they do not yet understand.

        // REDACTED ENGINEERING LOG

        DEVICE: "SYMBIOSIS GLOVE v0.7"

        CORE: alien_biochip(PUKINO_FRAGMENT)

        HOST: subject "SHINI" (human, courier)

        if (DNA_match && consent == true) {

          link.neural();

          unlock("combat_reflexes");

          unlock("kinetic_prediction");

        } else {

          error("REJECTION / PSYCHOTRONIC OVERLOAD");

        }

        span.comment { /* NOTE: PUKINO still conscious. */ }

Behind the Scenes

Shot entirely in Bucharest with a small crew and zero studio budget.
The villa sequence is inspired by Splinter Cell and John Wick, but executed with DIY resources.
The park fight with the three boys and the bodyguard was choreographed to stay grounded, not “superhero-level”.
Ali’s lab and the PUKINO tank were built from kitbashed props, cheap lights and a lot of creative lighting.
Everything is written, directed, shot and edited by the same mind: Shinijikun, under Osaka Pictures.

Watch the Christmas Special

ZONA ZERO – CHRISTMAS SPECIAL connects the end of Season 1 to the beginning of Season 2. If this universe resonates with you, help it grow: share the episode, comment, and subscribe.

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