Daisy Ridley puts down the lightsaber and picks up a rifle in director Neil Burger’s thriller The Marsh King’s Daughter, which, unlike the entire new Star Wars trilogy, has a satisfying beginning, middle, and end!
Helena lives an unconventional life off the grid with her mother (Caren Pistorius) and father Jacob Holbrook (Ben Mendelsohn) in the wilderness. Being very close to her father, she learns how to hunt, how to survive by her own means, and the brutal indifference of nature. Through young Helena’s (Brooklyn Prince) eyes we can see her mother is not happy with this nomad life their family leads.
Gil Birmingham as Clark Bekkum and Daisy Ridley as Helena Pelletier in The Marsh King’s Daughter. Photo Credit: Philippe Bossé
“Helena must stop running, confront her father, and risk her life to save her family.”
After her father is away hunting, Helena and her mother are visited by a man on an ATV who is lost and needs help getting back to the main roads. Helena’s mother becomes frenzied with both panic and relief and begs the man to save them. As fate should have it, and as movies go, Jacob returns and sees them trying to flee and attempts to stop them with lethal force.
Having narrowly escaped to the nearest police station, Helena’s entire reality is shattered as she is told the truth about her father. Jacob Holbrook had kidnapped her mother, raped her, and held her hostage in the woods for years. Jacob tracks them down at the precinct and attempts to coax Helena from the police but is ultimately apprehended. Before Jacob is arrested, he tells Helena, his “little shadow,” that he will find his way back to her.