I dream of Whirling


A psychological thriller

When a young dance teacher assumes responsibility for ending her mother's abusive marriage, she's haunted by much more than the threat of her father.

The Film

Psychological thriller · English and Turkish · New York

Esra is 26 and teaches movement at a dance school in Brooklyn. One afternoon her mother, Yasemin, turns up there with a duffel bag and an injured arm, and moves into Esra's one-bedroom apartment.

Esra has translated for her mother since she was a child, so she does it again: at the emergency room, at the courthouse, across a lawyer's desk. She changes the lock on her door and goes to get her two younger brothers from her father's house in Queens.

While she holds the family together, a knot in her neck grows into something she can't ignore.

Written and directed by Busra Coduroglu

Esra stands by a studio window, hands clasped, facing a student Esra and her mother at the kitchen counter with a tray of pastries A dancer kneels alone in a rehearsal studio at dusk

Team

Busra Coduroglu

Writer and Director

A first-generation Turkish-American filmmaker and educator in Brooklyn. She has translated for asylum seekers. Her films include Asylum (2022), which premiered at the Brooklyn Film Festival, and Between Dusk and Rain (2025). She has an MFA from Feirstein and was a 2026 Stowe Narrative Lab finalist.

Veronica Rutledge

Producer

A producer and editor in Brooklyn. She worked as an editor on Ramy and Emily in Paris and produced Birds of Paradise and Passing Through. She produced and directed A Place on the Edge of Breath for IF/Then and Hulu.

Mehmet Gungoren

Producer · ZeroPoint mk

Development to delivery, and the marketing after. An Antigone d'Or in Montpellier, a Young Director Award at Cannes Lions, Clermont-Ferrand, Camerimage, Sarajevo, a DGA Student Film Award. UCLA, then USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Kenan Baysal

Producer · ZeroPoint mk

Founded ZeroPoint mk with Mehmet. His first feature, Sweet Thing, premiered at the Berlinale and won the Crystal Bear. He is a Tribeca alumnus and a Cassavetes Award nominee, and studied at The New School.

Contact

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