Shot in Dublin and Wicklow, The Wonder is directed by Sebastián Lelio with a script by Emma Donoghue, Sebastián Lelio and Alice Birch adapted from Donoghue’s 2016 novel of the same name about the strange phenomenon of ‘fasting girls’. It stars Florence Pugh as Lib Wright, an English nurse sent to rural Ireland in 1862 to surveill eleven-year-old Anna O’Donnell (Kila Lord Cassidy) who is said to be living without food. The cast also includes Tom Burke, Niamh Algar, Elaine Cassidy, Toby Jones, Ciarán Hinds, Dermot Crowley and Brían F. O'Byrne. The Wonder was produced by Element Pictures (who made Room) and House Productions for Netflix, and went to the Telluride, Toronto, Venice and London film festivals before opening in cinemas in November 2022.
The Wonder was shortlisted for a Bafta (Outstanding British Film), a Women Film Critics Circle award for Best Woman Storyteller, an EDA Award (Alliance of Women Film Journalists) for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Girls on Film Best Feature Film, six London Film Critics' Circle awards including Best Screenplay and British/Irish Film of the Year, an Irish Film and Television Award for Best Film, and twelve British Independent Film Awards including Best Screenplay and Best British Independent Film. It was included in the National Board of Review Top Ten Independent Films.
EXTRAS
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/12/the-wonder-netflix-review/672303/
https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/forget-dont-worry-darling-the-wonder-is-the-florence-pugh-performance-you-need-to-see
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/wonder-review-florence-pugh-riveting-supremely-eerie-period/
A blog about the real 'fasting girls' cases I drew on for the novel and the film https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/literary/emma-donoghue-on-the-wonder