The Last Day reimagines Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece Mrs Dalloway in a few ways. The directorial debut of decorated visual artist Rachel Rose, the stark drama (which premieres Saturday night at Tribeca Festival) is set in modern-day New York and reimagines the protagonist, Clarissa, as Julia ( Alicia Vikander ), a writer feeling drained of creativity and purpose while navigating motherhood. Rose was inspired by her own experiences with postpartum depression: After she came out of that period, she revisited Mrs Dalloway on the advice of a friend and drafted the script months later.

The film’s more ambitious gambit, though, is what it does with the other half of its story. It beefs up — and gender-swaps — the role of Septimus, a traumatized veteran losing sight of reality, to operate in parallel with Julia.…