Synopsis
When Zahra, a young Iranian woman visiting Los Angeles with her sister Bahar, is tragically murdered after a weekend camping trip, her death sets off a chain of events that links the lives of seven women, each chasing their version of the American dream.
Shaken by Zahra's death and desperate to avoid police scrutiny, the perpetrator, Sean, urges his stepsister Amy and her boyfriend Jason to flee to Las Vegas. Amy finds herself torn between loyalty, fear, and a dawning realization that uncovering the truth could cost her everything.
Bahar, ridden with guilt, recalls the desperation that brought her to America. Once a student protester in Tehran, she was forced into hiding and under the control of her abusive fiancé. Choosing exile over imprisonment, she escaped to LA with Zahra—only to lose her in a city that promised freedom but delivered tragedy.
Amid the unfolding chaos, Emma, an Italian writer, wanders Los Angeles after a painful divorce, searching for meaning. She journals her encounters with men—including Carlos, Zahra's boyfriend—and confronts the illusions she once held about love, connection, and identity.
In East LA, Carlos' mother Carmen, an undocumented Mexican mother, lives in the shadows, awaiting a divorce that could decide her fate, while his sister, Luna, now pregnant, dares to cross the border for a better future.
Meanwhile, Anika, a soft-spoken Swedish woman, has followed her partner Bjorn to LA, supporting his dream of becoming a wrestler. But when she discovers his secret double life, Anika is forced to reclaim her independence and begin building a future of her own in a city that demands constant reinvention.
And in a quiet suburb, Rose, the wife of a former soldier haunted by PTSD, walks on eggshells. Her husband, Josh—once heroic—is now paranoid and controlling. For the sake of her son, Rose must find the strength to escape his psychological grip, even if it means confronting the fears she's buried for years.
As all their lives converge, a larger portrait of Los Angeles emerges—a city of illusions and contradictions, where seven women from different corners of the world confront violence, loss, and isolation while searching for identity, hope, and freedom.
About the project
Candid Dreams explores the promise and contradictions of the American dream through the intersecting lives of seven women from different cultural and social backgrounds in Los Angeles. Their stories address migration, violence, abusive relationships, displacement, cultural isolation, identity, belonging, and the struggle to begin again. Rather than treating these experiences as separate “issues,” the film connects them through a shared search for safety, dignity, hope, and freedom.
At its center is the question of what it means to belong in a city—and a country—defined by both possibility and exclusion. The film's international ensemble reflects contemporary Los Angeles and the ways women's lives can be shaped by borders, relationships, economic uncertainty, trauma, and reinvention. Through these intersecting perspectives, Candid Dreams seeks to humanize experiences that are often discussed politically or abstractly and instead present them through intimate, character-driven stories.
