Sun Sea AND Secrets

Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley and Dakota Johnson star in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s searing directorial debut, which explores the lesser-told story of motherhood when a beach holiday takes a dark turn. The trio tell Total Film how mutual admiration and Mai Tais helped make The Lost Daughter an awards contender.

- JANE CROWTHER

It’s clear from sitting in a London hotel suite with Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson and Jessie Buckley that when they say they enjoyed working together, it’s not for the benefit of column inches. Finishing each other’s sentences and teasing one another, the women are sitting in front of the backdrop of a sun-dappled beach and will later hold hands on the red carpet as their film debuts at the London Film Festival.

With its gorgeous cinematography of Greece and the stars’ jolly banter, you could be forgiven for thinking their project, The Lost Daughter, was a romcom or travel porn. But Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut from her own adapted screenplay of Elena Ferrante’s novel is a bold, questioning thriller that wrongfoots viewers at every turn and promotes conversation about female societal roles, regret and lack of it. Filmed last year on the island of Spetses, The Lost Daughter follows British academic Leda (Colman) as she takes a working holiday to the Attica region. While reading on her sun-lounger she observes young American mother Nina (Johnson) and her little girl – uncovering painful memories from her own past. Buckley essays the young Leda, trapped in a suffocating marriage and struggling to retain a sense of herself.

Playing to rave reviews at recent festivals, it’s a film that positions unapologetic women as complex characters with rich, messy lives. There’s disco dancing to Bon Jovi, ill-advised theft, hotel sex and a very pointy reckoning... Little wonder then that it’s in the awards conversation as the road to Oscar begins.

Was it as lovely to film in Greece as it looked?

Olivia Colman [deadpan] Awful. We had a terrible time…