Director: Olivia Newman
8/10
Not positive how this film came to my attention. Friend of a friend of….. Something like that. It’s an excellent film blending coming of age with murder mystery and moving from events in 1953 to 1968 and back.
Kya Clark in 1953 is a ten-year-old girl growing up in a dreadful family eking out a living in the marshlands of North Carolina. Their dwelling is little more than a shack which can only be gotten to by small boat through winding waterways. Her mother runs off to escape her abusive husband and one by one, Kya’s siblings do the same. When her father disappears, Kya has to fend for herself and earn a living by trading mussels at a general store.
As a teen she is looked upon with disdain by locals, who call her “marsh girl.” She has two relationships with local boys. One, Tate, goes off to college. He promises to return the following summer but doesn’t. She then goes with Chase, a local working-class boy. Turns out he was engaged. Kya devotes herself to work and sketching wildlife of the marshes. The drawings are published and bring her a little money and renown but the townspeople still dislike her.
Chase is found dead beneath a fire tower and Kya is put-on trial and defended by a local attorney (played masterfully by David Strathairn). So it’s town prejudice toward marsh girl versus the arguments of a defense attorney.
Nice ending with the proverbial twist. A superb look at a marshland life and beautifully filmed. Strathairn is the only actor I was familiar with but Daisy Edgar-Jones is excellent as Kya in her twenties.
©2022 Brian M Downing
Brian M Downing is a national security analyst who’s written for outlets across the political spectrum. He studied at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago, and did post-graduate work at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. Thanks as ever to fellow Hoya Susan Ganosellis.