CUB
2024 · 10m · USA
Directed by Sofia Rubin
A 12-year-old mixed martial artist grapples with a suffocating new sports bra and her domineering father's expectations during a crucial competition, as puberty pushes her changing body to surreal limits.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A black-belt director makes her debut turning puberty into body horror via MMA — this is the Julia Ducournau origin story we deserved, and the dad is definitely the real monster.
Rubin turns a sports competition into a body-horror reckoning with female adolescence — the creature-feature conceit isn't a gimmick, it's the most honest way to show what that age actually feels like.
Rubin literalizes puberty as body horror in the Carrie / Titane lineage — the sports-bra detail is precisely the kind of specific physical indignity that makes the metaphor land. Promising debut.
Festivals
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2024