sora is thirty days late, and she hasn't told anyone.

she has one night to hold her two lives apart before they collide.

pericarp is an award-winning psychological drama about the cost of
keeping a secret kept too long, and what's left of a person once the shell finally cracks.

a film by
ryan henry knight

written by
gelilla mekonnen &
ryan henry knight

executive produced by
ghil onyou hong
ryan henry knight

produced by
isis wells

a
HAPPY ACCIDENT
FILM COMPANY
picture

in association with
SALTLIGHT PICTURES &
PGM PICTURES

director’s statement

PERICARP was born out of a need to make something honest... a film without fear. without fear of failure, fear of success, or even the fear of making anything at all. we just wanted to create, something fast, and honest. and we’d like to think we did that.

My good friend (the very talented poet and actor) Gelilla Mekonnen and I were supposed to just get breakfast one morning in August 2025.

That meal turned into hours of raw conversation about anxiety, faith, love, and the subtle ways we lie to ourselves and our loved ones, out of fear, anxiety, and sometimes even ego.

We were both coming out of seasons of loss and transformation, wanting to reclaim a sense of truth through art.

Gelilla wanted to act again after years away from it, and I was desperate to direct something real after six years of commercial work.

That same night, we sat in my basement until the early morning, building a story that gave shape to everything we were feeling; guilt, silence, secrecy...

Within that day, I wrote the script.

we wanted to focus on how dishonesty with our loved ones transforms us, both physically and mentally. And transforms the ones around us.

that same day, we had actors, producers, and a tight-knit crew... mostly people doing multiple roles... all good friends who believed in the story and what we were tying to do with it.

We made it with nothing more than instinct, faith, and community.

PERICARP became an act of release. A way to surrender control, confront fear, and turn the mess of being human into something sacred.

What began as an act of honesty between two friends became a film about how fear mutates truth, and how silence transforms the body.

- ryan henry knight,
screenwriter/director

screenings