A group of strangers signs up to take a ride aboard a fake train headed to the fictional island of Hernmia. The catch? They all agree to enter the train not as themselves, but as carefully designed characters in a role-playing game. This premise, which kicks off Sunshine Express, proves a fertile allegory to examine the cogs of totalitarian systems and how authoritarianism often survives through not only shared complicity but a cruelly enforced sense of otherness. By drinking from the fountains of Bong Joon-ho and Jafar Panahi, Navaee crafts a tense, deeply nuanced political thriller in this promising feature debut. Rafa Sales Ross