An unusual and compelling mix of character drama and psychological thriller, Allure questions dynamics of age and maturity, dominance and submission, codependence and freedom.

Thirty-something Laura lives in the shadow of a past that she just can’t shake. She works a day job cleaning houses for her father’s business, and her off-duty attempts at intimacy put her into unsatisfying, unsettling situations. Until, that is, she meets teenage Eva whose individuality is suppressed by her controlling mother. Both isolated in their normal worlds, Laura offers Eva an escape, and the two forge a precarious and increasingly volatile space of their own.

Allure marks the confident feature debut of fine art photographers Carlos and Jason Sanchez, who bring their collective aesthetic sensibility to the film’s visual style by using camera placement and lighting to make internal states visible. Two powerful performances, in turns forceful and vulnerable, anchor this tense story of manipulation and how the past can haunt us.