The film The Lost Daughter brings together two very busy and celebrated actors, Maggie

Gyllenhaal and Olivia Coleman.

Coleman plays the central character of woman vacationing in Greece.

Gyllenhaal, however, isn't on screen.

She's in the director's chair, making her feature debut with a story that's sad and mysterious,

quiet and contemplative about the nature of motherhood.

I'm Linda Holmes and today we're talking about The Lost Daughter on Pop Culture Happy Hour

from NPR.

Joining me today is NPR Culture Desk Correspondent Netta Ullubi.

Welcome back, Netta.

Thank you, Linda.

Maggie Gyllenhaal directs here from a script that adapts and Elena Feronte novel.

In the story, Leda played by Olivia Coleman is a professor on a working holiday in Greece

when she becomes fascinated by a family or a group that she keeps seeing.

Particularly this young mother named Nina played by Dakota Johnson.

And this leads Leda to think about her own past.

You also see flashbacks in which the young Leda is played by Jesse Buckley.

Sometimes Leda's preoccupation with Nina seems sad.

Sometimes it's very ominous.

The rest of the cast includes Peter Sarsgard at Harris and Paul Meskall, who you might

know from last year's Hulu adaptation of the Sally Rooney book Normal People, so he's

getting around all the high-end literary adaptations.

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