As Anand watched, the film seemed to watch him back. A line of text on screen — not part of the movie but overlaid in watermarked white — addressed him directly: “You finally found us.” Heart hammering, he checked the file’s metadata; no clear source, only dates stamped like the rings of an old tree. He should have closed the player, deleted the download, and slept. Instead he forwarded the link to Mira, an archivist at the university who loved lost films more than small talk.