STOCKHOLM centers on Claire, a bright but restless 25-year-old, dives into an exploration of kink with the encouragement of her best friend, Skye. What begins as playful curiosity on a dating app quickly spirals when Claire matches with Leo, a charismatic older man who lures her into a captivity that blurs the line between coercion and desire.
Months later, Claire resurfaces: bruised, haunted, and back in the Bushwick apartment she once shared with Skye. Torn between the safety of home and the dark pull of her submission, Claire struggles to adjust to her old life.
Through fractured timelines of present-day recovery and flashbacks of captivity, Stockholm dissects friendship, sexuality, and the unsettling psychology of power. The proof-of-concept offers a chilling glimpse into Claire’s paradoxical truth, where survival and surrender are indistinguishable, and freedom might not be what she wants after all.
The short film will have its world premiere at Cinequest in 2026.
DIRECTOR’S
STATEMENT
“STOCKHOLM was born from a desire to wrestle with the blurred lines between power, intimacy, and survival. It is an erotic thriller on its surface, but at its core, it’s a psychological maze around consent. Like so many women, my relationship to consent, sex and power dynamics is complicated.
When the writers came to me with their story, it was illuminating to not feel alone in this experience but also heartbreaking to know this abuse is universal. I wanted to put the audience into the headspace that most women have felt before and push it to its extremes, without making a caricature of our trauma.
There’s a point where trauma consumes us, where identity feels rewritten by what has been taken from us. STOCKHOLM lives in that liminal space between control and surrender, between captivity and connection. By confronting these contradictions through cinema, I wanted to make a film that doesn’t give easy answers but instead lingers in the discomfort, because that is where truth lives.”
- KAITLYN MIKAYLA
WRITER’S STATEMENT
“From an early age, I’ve been deeply intrigued by power dynamics, the push and pull between control and surrender, dominance and submission. This curiosity led me to explore the kink and BDSM lifestyle. It was a space where I could navigate desire, autonomy, and trust on my own terms, in a way that made sense to me.
But power isn’t always given—it’s sometimes taken. In the wake of an assault last year, I found myself grappling with the complexities of consent, coercion, and the fine line between choosing to surrender and being forced to. Writing Stockholm became an essential part of my healing. It was a way to reclaim my voice, to wrestle with the contradictions of pleasure and pain, and to explore what it means to find freedom in submission.
Claire’s journey, in many ways, echoes my own. Through Claire, I have been able to confront the murky, uncomfortable questions that have lived inside me for years: When does surrender become survival? When does fantasy become a nightmare? And can you ever truly escape the hands that hold you, if part of you doesn’t want to?
Stockholm is more than a film to me. It’s a reckoning, a love letter to complexity, and a mirror held up to the parts of ourselves we don’t always want to face. Writing it has been one of the most meaningful journeys of my life, and I hope it sparks conversations as nuanced and haunting as the story itself. I deeply look forward to continue on the journey in creating this film and delving further into Claire’s shoes.”
- JENNA HARWOOD
ABOUT
SECRET BEACH
Secret Beach is a full-service production house based in Brooklyn, NY. They’re proud to develop and champion dynamic stories from idea to final cut. Together with our network of talented creatives, Secret Beach creates projects that are thoughtful, innovative, and unforgettable.
Secret Beach was founded by Jake Silbermann and Erica Pappas. Combined, they’ve produced bold new theater, hit music videos, large and small scale branded media, and award winning, Oscar-qualifying short films. Their first feature film is in post-production.
ABOUT
KAITLYN MIKAYLA