The film shining a light on coercive control and its warning signs
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Life Could Be a Dream follows Sarah, who makes a courageous decision to leave a marriage shadowed by coercive control, taking her 13-year-old son with her.
Director Jasmin Tarasin wanted to shine a light on coercive control and help people recognise the warning signs of this form of abuse.
CommBank Next Chapter helped provide guidance and support for the film, which releases in cinemas on 14 May 2026 and will be screened in schools and universities.
For almost 20 years, Jasmin Tarasin has been drawn to stories no-one hears – the untold experiences of women claiming their freedom and agency on their own terms. The idea for her latest film, Life Could Be a Dream, took root during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when rising domestic violence numbers left her deeply unsettled.
“I knew I had to do something,” she says. But Jasmin’s aim went beyond exploring domestic violence in a general sense. She wanted to shine a light on coercive control, a hidden and often misunderstood form of abuse. “There’s a lot of media about domestic violence but it’s riddled with stereotypes. You rarely see the subtle but insidious patterns that quietly steal someone’s autonomy – the underbelly of an invisible threat affecting so many lives.”
Bringing light to dangerous behaviours
In telling this story, Jasmin’s intention was to help people recognise important patterns and behaviours that can signal a relationship is moving into dangerous territory. “For years, the idea of loving someone so deeply that you always need to know where they are or control what they do has been shown as romantic,” she says. “But we should aim for respectful, intimate and individualised relationships.”
When behaviours like monitoring someone’s spending, making everyday decisions feel subject to approvals or controlling access to joint finances become the norm, “they can cause people to lose a sense of themselves and their agency.”
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Content retrieved from: https://www.commbank.com.au/brighter/community-stories/film-highlighting-coercive-control.html.
