Dreams of Dusk is a soap opera produced with CBC Arts that envisions a collapse of empire and dissolutions of personal power. The first 3 episodes are available above.
David, a delusional and self-important man, is in denial about his crumbling personal and professional life. Facing indictment for financial crimes, he attends a party where his endorsement of conspiracy theories and attempts at intellectual posturing are largely met with skepticism. He dismisses his legal troubles and his estranged son’s criticism, insisting on his continued relevance in spite of his secret doubts. He yearns for meaning, artistic greatness, and admiration, but avoids real self-reflection, settling for empty ambition.
Sarah and Laura, two affluent socialites and arts patrons, engage in idle gossip about scandalous rumours in their insular world. Beneath their self-assured facade, cracks begin to form. Their conversations spiral into abstract affirmations of their own innocence and mantras of self-justification, convincing themselves they have never done anything wrong. However, both are haunted by nightmarish and grotesque visions of their internal flaws, and they nearly experience a moment of revelation. Sensing the horror of their existence but unwilling to confront it, they instead choose to reinforce their collective delusion.
David, once self-assured in his intelligence and artistic ambition, finds his own poetry turning against him, revealing his deepest fears of humiliation and irrelevance. Seeking reassurance, he finds only more isolation. Meanwhile, Laura’s grotesque bathroom horror suggests that her suppressed wrongdoings are forcing their way into reality. The morally corrupt Sarah cannot escape either; her own nightmare self materializes, marking her too as someone who can no longer outrun what she has done. Their shallow attempts to deflect blame collapse under the weight of supernatural judgment and unrelenting condemnation, exposing them as parasites who have brought nothing but suffering. Is this a moment of true reckoning, or just another nightmare they will soon rationalize away?