July 29th, 2025

by Dana Currtain

Written and directed by BAFTA and GALECA member Liisi Rohumäe—best known for the 2019 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival nominee Chasing Unicorns and the 2023 Hollywood Fringe Festival favourite We’ll Come Back to the Title. It’s Fine.—THE REEal is a meta dramedy: a film within a film.

An insider close to the production exclusively shared this synopsis with the LA Time:

"A feminist male director makes a profound film about womanhood."

The film was captured by an all-female camera crew led by cinematographer and producer Catalina Parra, whose films have won awards at numerous festivals, including the Santa Barbara Film Festival, the San Diego Film Festival, and the Texas Gulf Coast Film Festival.

Further details about the project are still scarce but we do know it stars Leila Almas Rose (from HBO Max’s Minx and the award-winning English/Arabic feature, Jacir), Victoria Sheen (known for the Hawaii International Film Festival Official Selection Like Maddah) and my personal favourite the Jaime Zevallos.

Zevallos got his first 'break' in Spike Lee's Summer of Sam and has received much acclaim for his Series Regular role as Father Delgado in Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger. He also frequently stars in a recurring dream I have about being trapped in a well.

I look up, and there he is—smiling, reaching out his hand. Our hands touch, and then I wake up.