Jennifer Ruffalo
The main protagonist of the film is a tortoise; an ancient animal that embodies Cura, the Roman goddess of care, voiced by American vocalist Joan La Barbara. The setting is Richard and Dion Neutra's VDL Research House II in Los Angeles. Architect Neutra carefully designed his projects to elicit human sensory and emotional responses.
Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.
