The first trailer for The Tale, Laura Dern’s critically-acclaimed upcoming film, dropped this week. While it’s not an easy watch, it also suggests the film will be an essential addition to the ongoing conversation about the effects of sexual trauma.

Written and directed by Jennifer Fox, The Tale tells the true story of how Fox uncovered memories from her childhood and teenage years involving sexual abuse. Dern plays Jennifer, a 50-something filmmaker leading a relatively content life until her elderly mother calls to say she’s found a short story Jennifer wrote as a child (“the tale”).

The tale appears to indicate that Jennifer was a victim of grooming and sexual abuse, but she doesn’t remember this – and she fiercely rejects the word “victim”. What she does remember is the positive relationship she had with Bill (Jason Ritter), her running coach when she was a child and adolescent, and her riding instructor Mrs G (Elisabeth Debicki).

In Jennifer’s youthful mind, these were simply two attractive, compelling adults who took her under their wing, but the tale suggests the truth is much darker and more traumatic than that. Over the course of the film – and the trailer – we see her attempting to piece back together her memories from her childhood and adolescence to make sense of what really happened to her.

Laura Dern’s new film is set to be one of the most important of 2018