Dir: Lena Dunham. Starring: Bella Ramsey, Andrew Scott, Billie Piper, Joe Alwyn, Dean-Charles Chapman, Ralph Ineson, Isis Hainsworth, Russell Brand. 12A, 108 minutes.
In Lena Dunham’s adaptation of Karen Cushman’s Nineties children’s novel, we meet a young maiden in the 1290s, Lady Catherine aka Birdy (Bella Ramsey). She’s sweet, rambunctious and utterly blithe when it comes to her privilege. Nestled inside a workman’s cart, on the way to see her friend Aelis (Isis Hainsworth), she wonders what life must be like for the peasant class. She finds them exquisitely fascinating, “so simple… so passionate… so toothless”.
