LOST CAUSE
About The Project
Kubicova’s feature film script. Polished under the mentorship of
Cody Smart (writer and instructor at the UCLA Extension Writers' Program), whose guidance helped enhance the emotional arc while preserving the script’s original voice.
Development Status: Finalized script, open to co-production, representation, festival submissions, and development labs.
Logline
A witty retired composer recounts the reckless chaos of her youth, when a brain injury left her haunted by illusionary versions of herself.
With each illusion pushing her closer to the identity she long denied.
Synopsis
It’s the year 2071 and Emma, a retired composer with a sharp tongue and little patience for nonsense, isn’t thrilled when a cheerful young volunteer named Steven shows up at her nursing home. But when Steven helps her figure out a tricky piano pattern, Emma’s walls start to come down. She begins to open up and starts recalling the long tale of her biggest regret in life.
In the present day, young Emma is a hot mess of a woman — stuck in a dead-end job with no dreams, no goals, and a string of forgettable flings.
After Emma suffers a freak brain injury, she starts seeing vivid hallucinations of her child-self who follows her around. Unlike Emma, her child version is full of life and forces her to face the reality that things didn’t turn out the way she thought at that age – she is not married, doesn’t have a promising job nor plays the piano as an adult.
After Emma finds a way to get rid of the child, another hallucination comes in – her adult self. Only this version will not give her an easy pass and forces her to confront things and face who she truly is.
Told through sharp humor and bittersweet memory Lost Cause is about confronting the past, rewriting your story, and the strange ways the truth shows up in.
GENRE: Drama-Comedy
© 2025 Kristyna Kubicova - All Rights Reserved
WGA Registration Number: 2307565