In a bleak future city Bax (Connor Storrie, star of TV sensation Heated Rivalry) and his fraternal twin April (Lilly Krug – Shattered) struggle to survive on the edges of society.
Dubious medical practices like human cloning, recording dreams, and black-market medical care set a dystopian stage for Bax’s and April’s lives to spin out of control.
Fans of Storrie’s sexy role in Heated Rivalry may be surprised as he powers his way through a fairly straightforward action film with more guns and blood than angst and hockey.
Bax makes money dealing with used and dubiously acquired artificial hearts (and presumably other organs) for an underworld organization. April is a wig maker who can record her dreams to a higher standard than most people are able. All they have is each other and their struggle to stay afloat.
April gets caught up in a bad situation while selling most of her dream recordings after Bax empties their bank accounts to make up for a deal that has gone bad.
April disappears and Bax frantically searches for her.
After a multi-year gap of not being able to find his sister, Bax is contacted by an old associate telling him that he has seen April as an escort at a high-end club. Bax’s friend happened to be at the club as part of a business deal. This sends Bax down a bloody rabbit hole of cloned escorts and assassins and the criminal world that profits from the suffering of people of dubious legality. Bax discovers what happened to his sister and finds straw or two to grasp upon giving him hope about finding a way to get her back in one form or another.
Much like the movie Brazil, Bax’s efforts to save or at least recover his sister lead him down an increasingly self-destructive path. Every step he takes to save his sister puts his life in more danger.
April X tries very hard to be a hard-boiled noir thriller. Much of the movie has people spitting terse lines of dialog at each other in between fierce fights and gun battles. It reminded me of the 1980s film Streets of Fire where Michael Pare and Willem Dafoe spit lines at each other while fighting their way through a surreal urban landscape.
The film struggles with trying to be ambitious while being limited by the primarily low budget. Some of the action is well executed and some of the breaks that Bax and April get in the story are quite convenient. The breakneck pace in the third act may make up for some of the flaws. I found it somewhat distracting. If you are a fan of dystopian action films or Connor Storrie (or both) then this may be the film for you.
Rating: 6 out of 10.
April X screened at various Film Festivals including the 2026 SIFF and opens nationally on 9/25
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Produced by Lavinia Postolache
Written by Michel K. Parandi, Jack Coulton
Directed by Michel K. Parandi
Starring Connor Storrie, Lilly Krug, Tudor Chirila,
Serban Pavlu, Iulian Postelnicu, Cosmin Diacu, Marian Trasca
