Film Archive

To the Stars

Official Selection - Competition 2019 / To the Stars / USA 2019

Bullied by her classmates, reclusive Iris finds small-town life pure torment; for self-assured Maggie, however, moving to the provinces provides an opportunity to stand out from the rest. A film excelling in finely wrought detail that takes us back to the 1960s, a time when society, bound by gender prejudice, detested the idea of individuality in women.

Synopsis

1960s, Oklahoma. Bullied by her classmates, reclusive Iris finds small-town life pure torment; for self-assured Maggie, however, moving to the sticks provides an opportunity to stand out from the rest. What begins as an uneven relationship between two very different girls gradually grows into a sturdy friendship which starts to bring Iris out of her shell. But as the heroines soon discover, a society bound by gender traditions doesn’t easily tolerate those who step out of line. In all its fine-spun detail, the story told by director Martha Stephens conveys a black-and-white, almost dreamlike existence. At first glance it might seem remote to us yet it still tilts a mirror towards today’s world.

Sandra Hezinová

About the film

111 min / Black & white, DCP
International premiere
Director Martha Stephens / Screenplay Shannon Bradley-Colleary / Dir. of Photography Andrew Reed / Music Heather McIntosh / Editor Nathan Whiteside / Art Director Jonathan Guggenheim / Producer Kristin Mann, Laura D. Smith / Production Prowess Pictures / Coproduction Northern Lights Films, Foton Pictures, Rockhill Studios / Cast Kara Hayward, Liana Liberato, Shea Whigham, Jordana Spiro, Malin Akerman, Lucas Zumann, Tony Hale / Sales International Film Trust

About the director

Martha Stephens (b. 1984, Huntington, West Virginia, USA). Filmography: Echo Hollow (2005, short), Ant Hills (2006, short), Passenger Pigeons (2010), Pilgrim Song (2012), Land Ho! (2014, with Aaron Katz), To the Stars (2019)