Director: Alex Thompson, Kelly O'Sullivan
A theater rehearsal room becomes an unlikely mirror for private grief in Ghostlight, the 2024 comedy-drama directed by Alex Thompson and Kelly O'Sullivan.
What is Ghostlight about?
Dan spends his days on a construction site, quietly carrying a loss he hasn't found words for. On a whim, he wanders into a community theater group rehearsing Romeo and Juliet and ends up cast in a role he never asked for. The other actors, an unpolished but generous ensemble, pull him into their orbit without quite knowing what he's dealing with at home. As lines from Shakespeare start to echo his own circumstances, Dan's stiff exterior slowly loosens, and rehearsals become the place where he can finally approach what he's been avoiding. His wife and teenage daughter are working through the same loss in their own ways, and the film moves between the theater and the household with a light touch, never pushing the parallel too hard. It's a small-scale story, more interested in awkward silences and unexpected kindness than big speeches.
Cast & crew
Keith Kupferer anchors the film opposite his real-life wife Tara Mallen and daughter Katherine Mallen Kupferer, a family cast dynamic that gives the household scenes an unforced intimacy. Dolly de Leon, familiar from international festival circuits, brings dry warmth to the theater troupe's most grounded voice.
Context & significance
Ghostlight premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2024 before a wider theatrical release, earning praise for its restraint and its unusual choice to cast non-professional and semi-professional actors from Chicago's theater scene alongside its leads. The Romeo and Juliet framing device gives the film a built-in structure without ever feeling like a gimmick.
Where & how to watch
Ghostlight is available to watch on K-Time with a Farsi-language interface and includes both Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, so viewers can choose whichever fits them best. Reading this page doesn't require an account; watching the film does, through a simple K-Time login built for the Iranian diaspora.