Rude Horse Productions

Before follows a group of not-yet-humans in an eerie and exhausting waiting room. Like an eternal DMV visit, every visitor in this room has waited for thousands of years for their number to be called to be assigned a life on Earth. Some are anxious, some are hopeful, and others are defeated by impatience before their earthly lives have even begun.

In an isolated future, Ruby, newly 25 and deeply lacking a social life, finds her carefully constructed routines disrupted by an unlikely new friend: a mail-order robot. As the two form an unexpected bond, Ruby is forced to confront her fear of vulnerability, the quiet ache of loneliness, and the anxious inner voice that insists connection is something that only other people get to have. Through this strange but tender friendship, she begins to discover the power of opening up in a world that makes isolation feel inevitable.