The Lost Daughter

Leda, an academic on holiday in Greece, starts watching a young mother on the beach, and the part of her own motherhood she buried comes back. The film's nerve is in refusing to make her likeable: Leda genuinely left her children for a period, and the film presents that as a choice rather than a trauma. It is Maggie Gyllenhaal's first film as director. She acquired the rights to Elena Ferrante's novel in October 2018. Olivia Colman plays the older Leda and Jessie Buckley the younger one in flashback. They are the same woman, and the film leaves the audience to build the line between them. Shooting ran from 28 September to 31 October 2020 on Spetses in Greece, under pandemic conditions. At Venice, Gyllenhaal won the Golden Osella for Best Screenplay. Three Oscar nominations followed: Colman for Best Actress, Buckley for Supporting Actress and Gyllenhaal for Adapted Screenplay. Who it is for: viewers who want motherhood examined rather than sanctified, and who can take discomfort. Who it is not for: anyone needing a sympathetic lead. Leda is deliberately unbearable in several scenes.