THE LOST DAUGHTER
This week, I finally got around to watching Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, THE LOST DAUGHTER (trailer here) on Netflix. Based on a novel by Elena Ferrante, THE LOST DAUGHTER follows a middle-aged professor named Leda (Olivia Coleman) on her solo trip to Greece, where an introduction to a young mom (Dakota Johnson) and the seemingly idyllic sea breeze stir up some long-repressed memories and regrets. The film’s exploration of motherhood is refreshingly brazen and complex, if at times upsetting enough that I’d even consider it psychological horror. Immersive sound design and a fantastic score by Dickon Hinchliffe help juxtapose the lush, open paradise surrounding current-day Leda with the overwhelming sense of suffocation she felt in the life of her past self (with a younger Leda played by Jessie Buckley), until—with a deft hand from editor Affonso Gonçalves—the two timelines begin to fold in on each other. Go watch. This is a movie worth being haunted by.
—Alicia Devereaux, Development Assistant
