Overview
- The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 13, 2026 and marks the first public screening of Suzie Miller’s screen version of her award-winning play.
- Cynthia Erivo stars as Tessa, a successful criminal barrister who says she was sexually assaulted and must navigate the British legal system from the survivor’s perspective.
- Miller wrote the screenplay and director Susanna White opened the one-woman stage piece into a fuller courtroom drama that uses extensive voice-over to carry Tessa’s inner thoughts.
- Erivo and Miller have framed the release as an effort to widen discussion of consent and accountability and to involve men in changing cultural and legal responses to sexual violence.
- Early reviews at TIFF praise Erivo’s performance and the supporting cast while raising concerns that expanding the play into a conventional film reduces the stage work’s immediacy and that the film’s ‘shades of gray’ portrayal of the accused may blunt its moral clarity.