in terms of plot, characters, and themes.
Dedalus is a film that explores the complexities of human relationships and the various forms of love and loss that people experience throughout their lives. The film is structured as a triptych, with three distinct but interconnected stories that are brought together by the themes of community, love, and mortality.
The first story focuses on a grocery cashier in rural Iowa, who witnesses a sexual assault against his step-sister at a high school party. He is torn between speaking out and risking ostracism from his community, or remaining silent and allowing the perpetrators to go unpunished. As his step-sister's pregnancy progresses, he grapples with the question of whether she will keep the child, and what that will mean for both of them.
The second story follows a young hustler who makes his living by trading sex for food, shelter, and other essentials on the streets of New York City. He becomes enamored with an older gay client, but is unable to reciprocate his feelings, leading to a tangled web of desire, need, and exploitation. As winter sets in and the city becomes more unforgiving, the hustler must confront his own mortality and the consequences of his choices.
The third and final story centers on a father who faces his own mortality and decides to leave his home in Los Angeles to live with his daughter and her family. As he navigates the challenges of aging and declining health, he must also confront the deeper questions of what it means to love and be loved, and how to find meaning in the face of death and loss.
Throughout the film, director Jonah Greenstein employs a visual style that is both intimate and dreamlike, portraying his characters with empathy and compassion even as they struggle with difficult choices and painful emotions. The film's title, Dedalus, references the mythological figure of Daedalus, who famously built wings to escape from a prison, only to have his son Icarus fall to his death when he flew too close to the sun. This myth, with its themes of escape and mortality, provides a powerful metaphor for the film's exploration of the human condition.