Joika

Name: New Zealand Film Commission
Price range: $

New Zealand Production

Feature 2023 Drama 110.00 minutes

‘Joika’ is based on the true story of Joy Womack, one of the very few American’s to ever penetrate the elite, and punishing, world of the Bolshoi Ballet. A fifteen-year old aspiring American ballerina leaves her Texan family home and is thrust into the world of Russian ballet as one of the very few Americans to ever be accepted into the Moscow Bolshoi Academy. Under legendary teacher Tatiyana Volkova, Joy Womack trains with the goal of becoming a Prima Ballerina at the Bolshoi Company. But, behind the beauty of dance is a world of pain and brutal competitiveness, and Joy is forced to push her body, her mind and her choices further than she ever thought possible. Finding unlikely support from Volkova, she risks her health, relationships and potentially her life in her journey to determine what it means to be great.