Fresh off her iconic strut at the Toronto Film Festival, Florence Pugh is the center of yet another hotly anticipated film. No, this one doesn’t co-star Harry Styles, but it does see Pugh in the mysterious story of the Irish “fasting girls,” a 19th-century phenomenon that saw young women stop eating but miraculously survive.
Based on the novel by Emma Donoghue (Room), The Wonder weaves a story of faith, kindness and the unbearable burden of grief. Donoghue also co-wrote the script with Alice Birch (Normal People) while Sebastián Lelio, who won an Oscar for A Fantastic Woman, directed. Here’s everything you need to know about the film.
In 1862, English nurse Elizabeth “Lib” Wright is invited to a remote Irish village to verify claims that an 11-year-old girl, Anna O’Donnell, has survived without eating for several months. Lib and a medically trained nun are asked to observe Anna for two weeks and independently report on their findings. Lib is put off by the locals’ belief that Anna is a miracle, an idea that Anna herself holds. As Lib seeks a logical explanation behind it all, she also witnesses Anna’s health deteriorating and grows more concerned that no one, not even the girl’s doctor, is attempting to intervene and stop her prolonged fast. Lib realizes that if Anna is to survive, she must take matters into her own hands.
Pugh plays Lib Wright, the nurse sent to meet with the fasting girls, and Kíla Lord Cassidy plays Anna O’Donnell. Along with journalist Will Burn (The Souvenir’s Tom Burke), Lib is tasked with observing the young woman over the course of two weeks and determining whether or not her food-deprived survival is a hoax.
The Wonder primarily takes place in the countryside of 19th-century Ireland.
The Wonder will be available on Netflix Nov. 16.
In a new trailer for the film, Pugh stands atop a mountain shaking her fists, yelling, “Will you help me?” She’s shown continuously trying to figure out what happened to the young girls. The scene then cuts to Cassidy’s Anna saying, “You don’t understand us.” Watch the trailer below.
