The Marsh King’s Daughter (2023), directed Neil Burger, is a psychological thriller that explores themes of survival, trauma, and the complex relationships between a woman and her past. Based on the bestselling novel by Karen Dionne, the film tells the compelling story of Helena, a woman whose idyllic life is upended when her father, a notorious criminal, escapes from prison.

The film explores her journey as she is forced to confront the darkest parts of her childhood while grappling with the question of whether she can protect her own family from the legacy of her father’s crimes.

At the heart of The Marsh King’s Daughter is Helena (played by Daisy Ridley), a woman who grew up in isolation with her father and mother in the wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Her father, Jacob (played by Ben Mendelsohn), was a convicted rapist and kidnapper who held Helena’s mother captive for years in a remote cabin.

Despite the horrific nature of his crimes, Helena was raised by Jacob in the wilderness, and she shares a complicated, contradictory relationship with him—one that blends both affection and fear. When Jacob escapes from prison, Helena finds herself drawn back into the dangerous world of her past, where survival instincts learned in childhood will be put to the ultimate test.