Joanna is a competitive fencer at the end of her career who is desperate to be the world’s best. In order to gain an edge, she pursues an experimental technology, allowing her to train via lucid dreaming, where she begins a tumultuous affair with her instructor that threatens her real world marriage and her pathway to Olympic gold.
Acting
Cush Jumbo's physical intelligence—she fences like she's trying to escape her own skin.
Direction
Dorsey's dream sequences blur training and eroticism until you can't tell sweat from rain.
Cinematography
Cold arenas vs. molten dreamscapes—you feel the temperature drop between worlds.
Director
Nicole Dorsey
Cush Jumbo
Joanna Bathory
Manny Jacinto
Elliot
James Badge Dale
Raph
Christin Park
Audie Zimmer
Luke Bilyk
Wade
Heather Doerksen
Dr. Helena Sutro
Stephen Lobo
Owen
Claude Knowlton
Leo
Lori Triolo
Detective Fiorino
Jason William Day
Police officer #1
Johnson Phan
Detective Tran
Annette Reilly
Paris referee #3
Sharon Crandall
Dr. Lambright
Michele Goyns
Misha Crane
Sofia Skates
Fencing girl
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film weaponizes the 'lucid dreaming' subgenre's usual wish-fulfillment fantasy—here, control becomes another form of compulsion.
Jumbo trained with Olympic sabre fencers for eight months; the final tournament was shot at an actual FIE World Cup venue with real judges who didn't know it was a film until after.
CA
