A Bent Lamppost and Wet Earth
Walking home on a cold spring night, Sasha and Connor stumble upon a disquieting anomaly, drawing the unsettling attention of an unseen observer lurking in the deepening shadows.
# A Bent Lamppost and Wet Earth - Project Treatment
## Project Overview
**Format:** Feature film, 105 minutes
**Genre:** Rural Noir / Young Adult Thriller
**Tone References:** **Winter's Bone** for its grounded, atmospheric depiction of a dangerous rural community; **Super Dark Times** for its exploration of teenage friendship fracturing under the weight of a dark secret; **Blue Ruin** for its patient, methodical build-up of tension and its focus on the consequences of violence rather than its spectacle.
**Target Audience:** Fans of A24's character-driven thrillers, prestige crime dramas, and elevated coming-of-age stories that don't condescend to their young protagonists.
**Logline:** After two teenagers discover what they believe is a shallow grave on the outskirts of their sleepy town, they become the targets of an unseen killer, forcing them to unravel a conspiracy of silence before they become the next victims buried in the wet earth.
## Visual Language & Cinematic Style
The visual identity of this film is built on the duality of Briarwood. By day, the town is captured with static, composed, almost painterly shots that evoke a timeless, Rockwellian sense of peace. The color palette is warm, filled with the greens of manicured lawns and the soft pastels of prize-winning petunias. However, as evening approaches, the camera language shifts. We move to handheld, often using longer lenses to create a voyeuristic feeling, flattening the space and enhancing the sensation that our characters are being watched from a distance. The palette cools dramatically, dominated by deep blues, earthy browns, and the sickly, anemic yellow of failing streetlights. The space of the town's edge—the agricultural road—is a crucial cinematic battleground, a liminal space where the manicured safety of Briarwood gives way to the chaotic, overgrown darkness of the woods. Light here is a precious, unreliable commodity, and the shadows it casts are long, deep, and full of menace.
## Tone & Mood
The film is a symphony of stillness and creeping dread. Its emotional rhythm is a slow-burn, built not on jump scares but on sustained, atmospheric tension. The mood is one of quiet menace, where the most unsettling moments arise from the mundane turned sinister: a perfectly trimmed hedge, a friendly wave from a neighbour that lingers too long, the whisper of wind through skeletal branches. The soundscape is deliberately sparse, amplifying the natural sounds—the squelch of mud, the rustle of leaves, the distant bark of a dog—to create a sense of heightened, paranoid awareness. This is a world where silence is heavier and more threatening than any scream. The tragicomic banter between our leads provides fleeting moments of warmth and levity, making the encroaching darkness feel all the more potent and suffocating. It is a story that unfolds with the patient, watchful dread of a predator stalking its prey.
## Themes & Cinematic Expression
At its core, this is a film about the rot that festers beneath a placid surface and the brutal loss of innocence that comes from exposing it. This theme is expressed visually through the contrast between Briarwood’s pristine public face and the disturbed, muddy earth where its secrets are buried. The town's collective denial is a character in itself, visualized in scenes where Sasha and Connor are met with polite but firm dismissal by adults who refuse to see what is right in front of them. The theme of intuition versus skepticism is the central engine of Sasha and Connor's relationship; their arguments are not just dialogue but a representation of the struggle to accept an uncomfortable truth. The sound design will further this, with Sasha often reacting to subtle, almost subliminal sounds that Connor initially dismisses, sonically illustrating her heightened perception. Ultimately, the film explores the idea of "acceptable victims"—the marginalized individuals (the migrant workers) whose disappearance causes no ripples in the community—and posits that true courage lies not in confronting monsters in the dark, but in challenging the "good people" who create the shadows for them to thrive in.
## Character Arcs
### Sasha
Sasha is the story's intuitive heart. Perceptive, anxious, and burdened by a sensitivity she's learned to hide behind a veneer of sarcastic wit, she feels the wrongness of the world more acutely than those around her. Her flaw is a deep-seated self-doubt, a tendency to second-guess the gut feelings that are her greatest strength. At the start, she is a passive observer, frightened by the unseen gaze from the woods. Her journey is one of validation and action. As the threat escalates, she is forced to transform her anxiety into focused investigation, learning to trust her instincts above the dismissive logic of the adult world. She moves from being the scared girl who feels watched to the brave young woman who stares back into the darkness, ultimately becoming the catalyst who exposes Briarwood's dark secret, not through force, but through her unwavering perception.
### Connor
Connor is the anchor of skepticism, a pragmatic and loyal friend who uses humour as a shield against things he doesn't understand. His worldview is simple: things are what they seem, and the world of his small town is safe and predictable. His flaw is this willful ignorance, a refusal to see the darkness that Sasha senses immediately. The discovery at the lamppost is the first crack in his foundation. His arc is the shattering of this simplistic worldview. He is dragged from a world of "True Crime & Doughnuts" into a real, terrifying crime. He must evolve from Sasha’s dismissive protector into her true partner, learning to value her intuition as much as his own practicality. His journey culminates in an act of bravery where he puts himself on the line, not because he is unafraid, but because he has finally learned to see the world through Sasha's eyes.
### Mr. Finch (The Observer)
On the surface, Mr. Finch is a pillar of the Briarwood community—a quiet, respected widower whose only passion is his prize-winning dahlias. He embodies the town's placid facade. His personality is one of meticulous, almost obsessive, order and control. His flaw, and his evil, is a profound lack of empathy, a cold transactional view of human life where anyone who threatens his carefully cultivated world is a weed to be pulled. His arc is one of unmasking. He begins as a peripheral figure, a name dropped in conversation. He then becomes the unseen gaze, a terrifyingly anonymous threat. Finally, he is revealed as a cold-blooded killer whose polite demeanor is more chilling than any overt monstrosity. He isn't a monster who hides in the shadows; he is the man who tends the garden in which the shadows grow.
## Detailed Narrative Treatment (Act Structure / Episodes)
### Act I
We are introduced to the sleepy town of Briarwood and the easy, sarcastic friendship of SASHA and CONNOR. Sasha is perceptive and anxious; Connor is her grounded, skeptical counterpart. We learn about the town’s undercurrents: a recent mayoral scandal, and the quiet, unresolved disappearances of several migrant workers months ago, a story that has long since faded from local headlines. Their world is small, defined by school, part-time jobs, and the familiar walk home along the old agricultural road.
The inciting incident is the source chapter. On a cold spring night, their banter about local gossip is interrupted when Sasha senses something is wrong with a familiar bent lamppost. They discover a patch of freshly, neatly turned earth, smell a faint metallic tang, and feel the unnerving, prickling sensation of an unseen gaze from the dark woods. Their discovery of a mud-caked, stained work glove turns their unease into genuine fear. They retreat, the illusion of their town's safety shattered. The next day, driven by Sasha's insistence, they anonymously report their finding to the local police. They watch from a distance as a single, bored officer, CHIEF BRODY, gives the area a cursory glance before leaving, dismissing it as animal activity. From his house across the fields, MR. FINCH watches the police car, then turns his gaze to the two teenagers. He knows who they are.
### Act II
Sasha cannot let it go. Haunted by the feeling of being watched, she convinces a reluctant Connor that they have to figure out what they saw. They begin a quiet investigation into the missing workers, learning they were employed by a contracting company with ties to both the disgraced mayor and several prominent town figures, including Mr. Finch. Their simple questions are met with polite but firm resistance; people don't want to talk about it. The threat against them begins to escalate. A dead bird is left on Sasha’s windowsill. The tires on Connor’s bike are slashed. They are no longer just curious; they are being hunted.
The midpoint arrives when they sneak onto Mr. Finch’s property during the day, drawn by his connection to the contracting company. In his immaculate, almost sterile garden shed, hidden beneath bags of fertilizer, they find a small, worn photograph of one of the missing men with his family, and the matching work glove to the one they saw by the road. They now have a face for their killer. As they escape, Finch’s car pulls into the driveway. He sees them. The game changes. He confronts them indirectly the next day in the town square, a friendly chat laced with chilling, veiled threats about the dangers of "digging up things that should be left buried." He uses his influence to isolate them, painting them as troubled kids to their parents and the police. They are trapped, alone, and marked by a killer hiding in plain sight.
### Act III
Knowing no adult will believe them, Sasha and Connor realize they need undeniable proof. Their only chance is during the annual Briarwood Garden Festival, a town-wide event hosted and judged by Mr. Finch himself. While the town celebrates its idyllic facade, Sasha and Connor break into Finch’s house, looking for the murder weapon or something that ties him directly to the bodies. The climax is a terrifying cat-and-mouse sequence as Finch, realizing they are there, returns home unexpectedly. They evade him through the pristine house, the chase leading them to his vast, beautiful greenhouse. Trapped among the prize-winning dahlias, Finch calmly confesses, revealing he killed the men because they were going to expose his role in the mayor's financial crimes—a secret he has kept buried to protect the "perfect order" of his life and town. Just as he corners them, Connor manages to activate a live stream on his phone. The whole town, watching the festival's online feed, sees the confession.
In the aftermath, the state police descend on Briarwood. The grave by the lamppost is excavated, and the town's dark secret is laid bare. The placid surface is irrevocably broken. In the final scene, Sasha and Connor walk the agricultural road again. The lamppost is gone, replaced by a new, bright one that casts no shadows. But they know the darkness is still there, just further back in the trees. Their innocence is gone, but in its place is a stronger, more resilient bond, forged in their refusal to look away.
## Episode/Scene Beat Sheet (Source Material)
1. **Opening Banter:** Connor and Sasha walk home, their conversation about a local woman's petunias establishing their playful dynamic and the mundane setting of Briarwood.
2. **Sensing the Anomaly:** Sasha's mood shifts as she notices a familiar lamppost seems "off." The light is weaker, and she feels a subtle hesitation.
3. **The Discovery:** Her attention is drawn to the base of the lamppost. She points out a neat, oblong patch of recently disturbed earth, darker and wetter than the surrounding mud.
4. **Heightened Senses:** Sasha notes a strange metallic tang in the air and feels a shiver of unease, a distinct feeling of being watched from the darkness beyond the light.
5. **Connor's Skepticism:** Connor initially dismisses her concern, joking about utility crews and trying to lighten the mood.
6. **Mounting Evidence:** Sasha rejects his logical explanation, noting the lack of signs or barricades. Her fear intensifies as the feeling of a "heavy, silent presence" grows.
7. **The Turning Point - The Glove:** Sasha spots a mud-caked, stained work glove near the disturbed soil.
8. **Skepticism Shattered:** Connor sees the glove. His banter ceases, replaced by a low, serious admission that this is not normal. The metallic smell becomes stronger.
9. **Intensified Threat:** The feeling of being watched becomes a tangible, deliberate force. Sasha frantically scans the darkness, convinced someone is observing them from the hawthorns.
10. **The Retreat:** Sasha urges they leave. Their walk accelerates, becoming a near-run as they escape the oppressive darkness of the agricultural road. The silence between them is heavy with fear.
11. **Return to Safety:** They reach the well-lit residential streets, and the immediate tension subsides.
12. **Validation:** Connor, his nonchalance gone, finally admits he felt it too, asking, "You really think… someone was watching?"
13. **Final Realization:** Sasha confirms she *knows* they were being watched. She understands that they have stumbled upon a dark secret, a hidden underbelly to their town that has permanently altered their perception of home.
## Creative Statement
"A Bent Lamppost and Wet Earth" is a story born from the quiet dread of the familiar turned strange. It explores the terrifying moment in youth when the world reveals itself to be more complex and dangerous than we imagined. This is not a story about monsters, but about the monstrosity that can hide behind a neighborly smile and a prize-winning garden. By grounding the narrative in the relationship between two authentic, relatable teenagers, we invite the audience to experience their loss of innocence firsthand. In an era of pervasive mistrust and buried truths, this film serves as a powerful allegory for the courage it takes to speak up, to trust one's intuition, and to force a community to confront the secrets it would rather leave buried. It is a story for now, a reminder that the most important truths are often the ones whispered in the dark, on the edge of town.
## Audience Relevance
Contemporary audiences, particularly younger viewers, are drawn to stories that validate their perception of a flawed and often duplicitous adult world. "A Bent Lamppost and Wet Earth" speaks directly to this sensibility. It taps into the universal coming-of-age experience of realizing that safety is an illusion and that authority figures do not always have the answers. The film's themes of social justice—highlighting how the disappearance of marginalized individuals is easily ignored by a community—resonate strongly with current social conversations. By blending the classic appeal of a "kids-on-bikes" mystery with the sophisticated, atmospheric tension of a rural noir, this project has the potential to attract a broad audience, from teenagers who see themselves in Sasha and Connor to adults who appreciate a taut, intelligent, and character-driven thriller. It is a story that feels both timeless in its themes and urgently relevant today.
## Project Overview
**Format:** Feature film, 105 minutes
**Genre:** Rural Noir / Young Adult Thriller
**Tone References:** **Winter's Bone** for its grounded, atmospheric depiction of a dangerous rural community; **Super Dark Times** for its exploration of teenage friendship fracturing under the weight of a dark secret; **Blue Ruin** for its patient, methodical build-up of tension and its focus on the consequences of violence rather than its spectacle.
**Target Audience:** Fans of A24's character-driven thrillers, prestige crime dramas, and elevated coming-of-age stories that don't condescend to their young protagonists.
**Logline:** After two teenagers discover what they believe is a shallow grave on the outskirts of their sleepy town, they become the targets of an unseen killer, forcing them to unravel a conspiracy of silence before they become the next victims buried in the wet earth.
## Visual Language & Cinematic Style
The visual identity of this film is built on the duality of Briarwood. By day, the town is captured with static, composed, almost painterly shots that evoke a timeless, Rockwellian sense of peace. The color palette is warm, filled with the greens of manicured lawns and the soft pastels of prize-winning petunias. However, as evening approaches, the camera language shifts. We move to handheld, often using longer lenses to create a voyeuristic feeling, flattening the space and enhancing the sensation that our characters are being watched from a distance. The palette cools dramatically, dominated by deep blues, earthy browns, and the sickly, anemic yellow of failing streetlights. The space of the town's edge—the agricultural road—is a crucial cinematic battleground, a liminal space where the manicured safety of Briarwood gives way to the chaotic, overgrown darkness of the woods. Light here is a precious, unreliable commodity, and the shadows it casts are long, deep, and full of menace.
## Tone & Mood
The film is a symphony of stillness and creeping dread. Its emotional rhythm is a slow-burn, built not on jump scares but on sustained, atmospheric tension. The mood is one of quiet menace, where the most unsettling moments arise from the mundane turned sinister: a perfectly trimmed hedge, a friendly wave from a neighbour that lingers too long, the whisper of wind through skeletal branches. The soundscape is deliberately sparse, amplifying the natural sounds—the squelch of mud, the rustle of leaves, the distant bark of a dog—to create a sense of heightened, paranoid awareness. This is a world where silence is heavier and more threatening than any scream. The tragicomic banter between our leads provides fleeting moments of warmth and levity, making the encroaching darkness feel all the more potent and suffocating. It is a story that unfolds with the patient, watchful dread of a predator stalking its prey.
## Themes & Cinematic Expression
At its core, this is a film about the rot that festers beneath a placid surface and the brutal loss of innocence that comes from exposing it. This theme is expressed visually through the contrast between Briarwood’s pristine public face and the disturbed, muddy earth where its secrets are buried. The town's collective denial is a character in itself, visualized in scenes where Sasha and Connor are met with polite but firm dismissal by adults who refuse to see what is right in front of them. The theme of intuition versus skepticism is the central engine of Sasha and Connor's relationship; their arguments are not just dialogue but a representation of the struggle to accept an uncomfortable truth. The sound design will further this, with Sasha often reacting to subtle, almost subliminal sounds that Connor initially dismisses, sonically illustrating her heightened perception. Ultimately, the film explores the idea of "acceptable victims"—the marginalized individuals (the migrant workers) whose disappearance causes no ripples in the community—and posits that true courage lies not in confronting monsters in the dark, but in challenging the "good people" who create the shadows for them to thrive in.
## Character Arcs
### Sasha
Sasha is the story's intuitive heart. Perceptive, anxious, and burdened by a sensitivity she's learned to hide behind a veneer of sarcastic wit, she feels the wrongness of the world more acutely than those around her. Her flaw is a deep-seated self-doubt, a tendency to second-guess the gut feelings that are her greatest strength. At the start, she is a passive observer, frightened by the unseen gaze from the woods. Her journey is one of validation and action. As the threat escalates, she is forced to transform her anxiety into focused investigation, learning to trust her instincts above the dismissive logic of the adult world. She moves from being the scared girl who feels watched to the brave young woman who stares back into the darkness, ultimately becoming the catalyst who exposes Briarwood's dark secret, not through force, but through her unwavering perception.
### Connor
Connor is the anchor of skepticism, a pragmatic and loyal friend who uses humour as a shield against things he doesn't understand. His worldview is simple: things are what they seem, and the world of his small town is safe and predictable. His flaw is this willful ignorance, a refusal to see the darkness that Sasha senses immediately. The discovery at the lamppost is the first crack in his foundation. His arc is the shattering of this simplistic worldview. He is dragged from a world of "True Crime & Doughnuts" into a real, terrifying crime. He must evolve from Sasha’s dismissive protector into her true partner, learning to value her intuition as much as his own practicality. His journey culminates in an act of bravery where he puts himself on the line, not because he is unafraid, but because he has finally learned to see the world through Sasha's eyes.
### Mr. Finch (The Observer)
On the surface, Mr. Finch is a pillar of the Briarwood community—a quiet, respected widower whose only passion is his prize-winning dahlias. He embodies the town's placid facade. His personality is one of meticulous, almost obsessive, order and control. His flaw, and his evil, is a profound lack of empathy, a cold transactional view of human life where anyone who threatens his carefully cultivated world is a weed to be pulled. His arc is one of unmasking. He begins as a peripheral figure, a name dropped in conversation. He then becomes the unseen gaze, a terrifyingly anonymous threat. Finally, he is revealed as a cold-blooded killer whose polite demeanor is more chilling than any overt monstrosity. He isn't a monster who hides in the shadows; he is the man who tends the garden in which the shadows grow.
## Detailed Narrative Treatment (Act Structure / Episodes)
### Act I
We are introduced to the sleepy town of Briarwood and the easy, sarcastic friendship of SASHA and CONNOR. Sasha is perceptive and anxious; Connor is her grounded, skeptical counterpart. We learn about the town’s undercurrents: a recent mayoral scandal, and the quiet, unresolved disappearances of several migrant workers months ago, a story that has long since faded from local headlines. Their world is small, defined by school, part-time jobs, and the familiar walk home along the old agricultural road.
The inciting incident is the source chapter. On a cold spring night, their banter about local gossip is interrupted when Sasha senses something is wrong with a familiar bent lamppost. They discover a patch of freshly, neatly turned earth, smell a faint metallic tang, and feel the unnerving, prickling sensation of an unseen gaze from the dark woods. Their discovery of a mud-caked, stained work glove turns their unease into genuine fear. They retreat, the illusion of their town's safety shattered. The next day, driven by Sasha's insistence, they anonymously report their finding to the local police. They watch from a distance as a single, bored officer, CHIEF BRODY, gives the area a cursory glance before leaving, dismissing it as animal activity. From his house across the fields, MR. FINCH watches the police car, then turns his gaze to the two teenagers. He knows who they are.
### Act II
Sasha cannot let it go. Haunted by the feeling of being watched, she convinces a reluctant Connor that they have to figure out what they saw. They begin a quiet investigation into the missing workers, learning they were employed by a contracting company with ties to both the disgraced mayor and several prominent town figures, including Mr. Finch. Their simple questions are met with polite but firm resistance; people don't want to talk about it. The threat against them begins to escalate. A dead bird is left on Sasha’s windowsill. The tires on Connor’s bike are slashed. They are no longer just curious; they are being hunted.
The midpoint arrives when they sneak onto Mr. Finch’s property during the day, drawn by his connection to the contracting company. In his immaculate, almost sterile garden shed, hidden beneath bags of fertilizer, they find a small, worn photograph of one of the missing men with his family, and the matching work glove to the one they saw by the road. They now have a face for their killer. As they escape, Finch’s car pulls into the driveway. He sees them. The game changes. He confronts them indirectly the next day in the town square, a friendly chat laced with chilling, veiled threats about the dangers of "digging up things that should be left buried." He uses his influence to isolate them, painting them as troubled kids to their parents and the police. They are trapped, alone, and marked by a killer hiding in plain sight.
### Act III
Knowing no adult will believe them, Sasha and Connor realize they need undeniable proof. Their only chance is during the annual Briarwood Garden Festival, a town-wide event hosted and judged by Mr. Finch himself. While the town celebrates its idyllic facade, Sasha and Connor break into Finch’s house, looking for the murder weapon or something that ties him directly to the bodies. The climax is a terrifying cat-and-mouse sequence as Finch, realizing they are there, returns home unexpectedly. They evade him through the pristine house, the chase leading them to his vast, beautiful greenhouse. Trapped among the prize-winning dahlias, Finch calmly confesses, revealing he killed the men because they were going to expose his role in the mayor's financial crimes—a secret he has kept buried to protect the "perfect order" of his life and town. Just as he corners them, Connor manages to activate a live stream on his phone. The whole town, watching the festival's online feed, sees the confession.
In the aftermath, the state police descend on Briarwood. The grave by the lamppost is excavated, and the town's dark secret is laid bare. The placid surface is irrevocably broken. In the final scene, Sasha and Connor walk the agricultural road again. The lamppost is gone, replaced by a new, bright one that casts no shadows. But they know the darkness is still there, just further back in the trees. Their innocence is gone, but in its place is a stronger, more resilient bond, forged in their refusal to look away.
## Episode/Scene Beat Sheet (Source Material)
1. **Opening Banter:** Connor and Sasha walk home, their conversation about a local woman's petunias establishing their playful dynamic and the mundane setting of Briarwood.
2. **Sensing the Anomaly:** Sasha's mood shifts as she notices a familiar lamppost seems "off." The light is weaker, and she feels a subtle hesitation.
3. **The Discovery:** Her attention is drawn to the base of the lamppost. She points out a neat, oblong patch of recently disturbed earth, darker and wetter than the surrounding mud.
4. **Heightened Senses:** Sasha notes a strange metallic tang in the air and feels a shiver of unease, a distinct feeling of being watched from the darkness beyond the light.
5. **Connor's Skepticism:** Connor initially dismisses her concern, joking about utility crews and trying to lighten the mood.
6. **Mounting Evidence:** Sasha rejects his logical explanation, noting the lack of signs or barricades. Her fear intensifies as the feeling of a "heavy, silent presence" grows.
7. **The Turning Point - The Glove:** Sasha spots a mud-caked, stained work glove near the disturbed soil.
8. **Skepticism Shattered:** Connor sees the glove. His banter ceases, replaced by a low, serious admission that this is not normal. The metallic smell becomes stronger.
9. **Intensified Threat:** The feeling of being watched becomes a tangible, deliberate force. Sasha frantically scans the darkness, convinced someone is observing them from the hawthorns.
10. **The Retreat:** Sasha urges they leave. Their walk accelerates, becoming a near-run as they escape the oppressive darkness of the agricultural road. The silence between them is heavy with fear.
11. **Return to Safety:** They reach the well-lit residential streets, and the immediate tension subsides.
12. **Validation:** Connor, his nonchalance gone, finally admits he felt it too, asking, "You really think… someone was watching?"
13. **Final Realization:** Sasha confirms she *knows* they were being watched. She understands that they have stumbled upon a dark secret, a hidden underbelly to their town that has permanently altered their perception of home.
## Creative Statement
"A Bent Lamppost and Wet Earth" is a story born from the quiet dread of the familiar turned strange. It explores the terrifying moment in youth when the world reveals itself to be more complex and dangerous than we imagined. This is not a story about monsters, but about the monstrosity that can hide behind a neighborly smile and a prize-winning garden. By grounding the narrative in the relationship between two authentic, relatable teenagers, we invite the audience to experience their loss of innocence firsthand. In an era of pervasive mistrust and buried truths, this film serves as a powerful allegory for the courage it takes to speak up, to trust one's intuition, and to force a community to confront the secrets it would rather leave buried. It is a story for now, a reminder that the most important truths are often the ones whispered in the dark, on the edge of town.
## Audience Relevance
Contemporary audiences, particularly younger viewers, are drawn to stories that validate their perception of a flawed and often duplicitous adult world. "A Bent Lamppost and Wet Earth" speaks directly to this sensibility. It taps into the universal coming-of-age experience of realizing that safety is an illusion and that authority figures do not always have the answers. The film's themes of social justice—highlighting how the disappearance of marginalized individuals is easily ignored by a community—resonate strongly with current social conversations. By blending the classic appeal of a "kids-on-bikes" mystery with the sophisticated, atmospheric tension of a rural noir, this project has the potential to attract a broad audience, from teenagers who see themselves in Sasha and Connor to adults who appreciate a taut, intelligent, and character-driven thriller. It is a story that feels both timeless in its themes and urgently relevant today.