Dada

A young teen and her father take a road trip to a cabin next to the world’s largest nuclear power facility. A nonsense game, born out of their distinctive playfulness, escalates into a power struggle when the girl pretends she can “no longer see” the father. An only child, the girl has long fought between compassion and codependency with her overly eager, divorced dad. Its seeming ridiculousness is her game’s insidious power: it wears down the father’s authority and tears open the relationship. Accepted truths can no longer explain the past, nor can jokes cover the absence of a mother. Under both the hidden surveillance by private nuclear security and the suspicions cast on a man and a girl who travel alone, the game transforms into a manic social performance. The absurdity obliterates logic, language, and paternalism revealing a pantomime of skeletons in their family roles. It is only from under the shadow of this nuclear cloud that the father and daughter can emerge with the possibility of a new light reflected in their exposed and beating hearts.