Sofia Rubin

I want to make my audiences squirm. How better to do that than a story about nuns watching porn? The project came from a place of discomfort in myself, of the prudishness and body horror I find in my own day-to-day. My goal was to explore that in the most uncomfortable way possible: on the big screen.

Puberty as a girl sucks. Bras are suffocating, hair sprouts everywhere, adults are suddenly weird about your body. If that wasn't bad enough, I had other kids trying to choke me out every week. I grew up practicing Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and got my black belt at 9 years old. I hated it. Experiencing that visceral anxiety so young was the perfect seed for a body-horror coming-of-age story: going through puberty in such a violently physical environment was stifling, especially while my dad was pushing me to win. Girls need agency!

This is the semi-true story of my childhood as a young girl martial artist. I trained and competed in Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from ages 3-14, and earned my black belt six days after my 9th birthday. I hated fighting — my dad forced me to do it. I went through puberty in a violent, physical, male-dominated space, suffocating in my first sports bra and under the weight of my father's expectations; I turned that into a chaotic body horror where transforming into a tiger becomes the central metaphor for claiming my power in becoming a woman.