Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton
A thrilling 19th century tragedy and one of the most exciting discoveries of this year’s London Film Festival, British director William Oldroyd’s exceptional debut stars the luminous Florence Pugh (The Falling) as a defiant, passionate young woman struggling against suffocating societal norms.
Adapted from Nikolai Leskov’s 1865 novella Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District and transposed to rural England, it follows young bride Katherine (Pugh), trapped in a loveless marriage to a much older man and browbeaten by her sadistic husband’s callous family. But when she embarks on a passionate affair with a young worker on their estate, a new force is unleashed inside her; so powerful that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
Oldroyd makes a seamless transition from theatre, where he gained many admirers as the Director in Residence at London’s Young Vic, to filmmaking with this stark and sensual adaptation.
