Inland Empire

A struggling actress, Nikki Grace, is on the verge of landing a major role in a new film directed by Kingsley Stewart. As she vies for the part, an eerie Polish neighbor warns her of a curse: "A little girl went out to play and when she ventured out into the world, that's when the trouble began." Undeterred, Nikki accepts the part, which echoes a film that was never finished due to a tragedy involving its leads. The film is a remake called "On High in Blue Tomorrows," and Nikki's co-star is Devon Berk, a talented yet notorious actor with a reputation for on-set romances. Despite warnings about the doomed past production and their own personal commitments, Nikki and Devon find themselves drawn together, blurring the lines between performance and reality.

As Nikki immerses herself deeper into her character, Susan Blue, she starts to experience unsettling shifts in time and identity. The narrative fragments, and Nikki's sense of self begins to unravel as she navigates through different layers of consciousness, blending her life with that of Susan's, and even with that of a young Polish woman with a tragic story. Hallucinatory images, cryptic dialogues, and dreamlike sequences disorient the audience as the boundaries of filmmaking, narrative, and identity are dismantled, thrusting Nikki into an increasingly disconcerting and labyrinthine world where illusion and reality are indistinguishable.