Lewis Pullman, Austin Abrams & Eliza Scanlen on The Starling Girl at Sundance 2023

For Laurel Parmet’s first feature film, The Starling Girl, the writer and director told a story that was “emotional and cathartic,” and one that was a decade in the making. It is centered around Jem Starling, played by Eliza Scanlen, a teenager growing up in a Christian fundamentalist community in small-town Kentucky. At 17, Jem is helping her mother raise her younger siblings, dutifully attending church, and abiding by the strict guidelines set in place for women in the faith. Under the thumb of the community and her mother’s devout discipline, Jem finds her only respite in her passion for dancing and does so with the church’s dance group. When the pastor’s son and youth pastor, Owen (played by Lewis Pullman), returns from a mission trip, Jem is enamored by his tendency to buck tradition. When the married Owen begins paying Jem attention, the two of them become involved in a secret relationship that has devastating consequences. The film’s ensemble cast also features Jimmi Simpson, Austin Abrams, and