48Hours film Snow Country for Cold Elves subverts its assigned genre of Christmas film with machine guns, fight scenes and exploitation. The combination of the dark plotline with a children's story delivers full shock and comedy value. Auckland-based filmmaker Hweiling Ow wrote, directed and stars as an elf on a mission. She is joined by two frequent collaborators, cinematographer/producer Peter Haynes and composer Luke Fitzgerald — the trio also all worked on the web-series Ao-terror-oa, which was released the same year. The short film got to the National Finals of the 48Hours competition in 2017.