When sex worker Tess falls pregnant, she has to fight to keep her past from swallowing her whole.
Acting
Christia Visser's physical, wordless resilience—every silence screams.
Direction
Rickards refuses easy catharsis; the camera never judges Tess.
Director
Meg Rickards
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot in Cape Town's hidden sex work corridors with non-professional supporting cast from the community. Rickards spent two years building trust before cameras rolled.
The underwater birth dream sequence was improvised when Visser, who couldn't swim, panicked—Rickards kept rolling. That terror is real.
ZA
