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Eight-year-old Josephine witnesses a brutal sexual assault while running with her father in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. As a court case approaches, her parents struggle to help her process the trauma while Josephine becomes haunted by the memory of what she saw.
Directors: Beth de Araújo
Writers: Beth de Araújo
Mason Reeves, Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan, Philip Ettinger, Syra McCarthy, Eleanore Pienta, Michael Angelo Covino, Dana Millican
Cinematographer: Greta Zozula
Editing: Nico Leunen, Kyle Reiter, Anisha Acharya
Music: Miles Ross
Distributed by: N/A
Release Date: N/A
Platform: MIFF 2026

Although the camera switches from Josephine’s direct first-person view, we never truly leave that perspective

A haunting opening sequence takes us from the first-person perspective of Josephine, an eight-year-old girl heading out to play soccer with her dad, to that of a witness. The film then follows her as she and her parents attempt to reconcile with it all. And this film, from writer-director, doesn’t have the answers; it’s just a reality. A dark, sad reality. 

Moments after getting too far ahead of her dad (Channing Tatum), Josephine (Mason Reeves) witnesses a man follow a woman into a bathroom and sexually assault her. It’s not played off screen; it’s not talked about or skirted around as something that happened. We, the audience, much like Josephine herself, have to witness this disgusting and terrible attack. My audience at the Melbourne International Film Festival had a mix of sudden, held breaths and deep, shocked reactions. I even heard one audience member whisper “poor girl.” And the thing about that comment that stuck with me was wondering who they perceived as the poorest girl in this scenario. Assuming it’s Josephine, is it because we have accepted rape and abuse of women as a daily occurrence as normal? And that a young child witnessing it was the darkest of acts here? 

The days and weeks that follow for Josephine, her father, and her mother (Gemma Chan) are some of the most confronting cinema I’ve seen. And seeing all the mistakes that the adults around Josephine make, the attempts by her parents to do well by her, and how it all quickly affects and changes this child’s mind is, to put it as simply as possible, so very sad.

Although the camera switches from Josephine’s direct first-person view, we never truly leave that perspective. We, as an audience, may be seeing and understanding more; the camera, with some sensational work from Greta Zozula and the tight direction from Beth de Araújo, keeps it within Josephine’s point of view and alongside her at all times. In one sequence I don’t want to spoil for narrative reasons, the camera loops around a room at floor level, then circles in confusion at what’s happening, though it never reaches adult height. 

Mason Reeves performance as Josephine is a standout for the child actor, but it’s paired with a solid Gemma Chan and a career-best Channing Tatum. The parents having to navigate the range of emotions that Josephine is now inundated with is something any current or dreaming-to-be parent is going to be hit with harder. How do you handle your eight-year-old daughter suddenly asking, “Have you ever been raped?” How do you handle separating the discussion of consensual sex at this age from what she witnessed? And how do you attempt to navigate conversations around what makes a good man vs the bad men when her perception is now shifted, potentially, forever? 

You may have seen a film like Josephine before, but you haven’t seen this story presented in this way with such an unflinching perspective.

[Dylan attended a screening thanks to the Melbourne International Film Festival]