England, 1969. The fascinating Abbie and the troubled Lydia are great friends. After an unexpected tragedy occurs in the strict girls' school they attend, a mysterious epidemic of fainting breaks out that threatens the mental sanity and beliefs of the tormented people involved, both teachers and students.
Acting
Maisie Williams simmers with rage you'll feel in your bones.
Direction
Carol Morley builds dread through stillness, not shocks.
Score
Tracey Thorn's haunting music feels like memory itself.
Director
Carol Morley
Maisie Williams
Lydia Lamont
Maxine Peake
Eileen Lamont
Greta Scacchi
Miss Edith Mantel
Monica Dolan
Miss Martha Alvaro
Mathew Baynton
Mr. Hopkins
Florence Pugh
Abbie Mortimer
Joe Cole
Kenneth Lamont
Morfydd Clark
Miss Pamela Charron
Anna Burnett
Susan
Evie Hooton
Janet
Lauren McCrostie
Gwen
Elizabeth Marsh
Miss Fanshawe
Hannah Stokely
Miss Ash
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Florence Pugh's first feature film role—she was 17 and already impossible to look away from.
Based loosely on real 1969 mass fainting incidents in UK schools, often dismissed as 'hysteria' rather than examined as female protest.
GB
