Josephine

When eight-year-old Josephine (Mason Reeves) and her father Damien (Channing Tatum, TIFF ’25’s Roofman) walk through Golden Gate Park one morning, they witness the sexual assault of a stranger. Though her father manages to stop the attack, the event leaves Josephine emotionally scarred. In the aftermath, Damien enrolls Josephine in martial arts to help her reclaim her sense of power, while her mother Claire (Gemma Chan) advocates for therapy and insists she testify in court. Caught between her parents’ conflicting approaches and still struggling to process her trauma, Josephine begins acting out violently at school and becomes hypervigilant, constantly scanning her surroundings for threats.

Inspired by director Beth de Araújo’s own childhood memory, the film is a devastating portrait of a young girl who is forced to confront impossible cruelty and surrender the safety she once knew. Newcomer Reeves delivers an impressive and sensitive performance. Through cinematographer Greta Zozula’s skilful lens, we are drawn into Josephine’s paranoia, where the sight of a man walking down a school hallway can trigger survival instincts. Following her 2022 psychological thriller Soft & Quiet, which unfolds over a single continuous take, de Araújo once again uses formal rigour and grounded direction to capture the raw, specific weight of a brutal experience.

ROBYN CITIZEN

Content advisory: depiction of sexual assault