The film, The Lost Daughter, is about Leda, an Italian academic, relaxing at a beach while she researches and writes up her notes for a series of lectures she plans to give at her university. A family arrives and interrupts her solitude. The film was edgy, harrowing, and stayed with me for days. I wanted answers to three questions. Why did Leda behave so despicably towards the family? Of the three likely characters, who was the lost daughter? And thirdly, what happens to Leda at the end of the film?
As in the film based on the book, everything is quiet for the first few days until a family arrives from Naples. Loud and boisterous, they come to the beach every day. Leda is distracted and starts to take an interest in them. Nina is a young mother and Elena is her daughter. Their loving relationship brings back painful memories for Leda whose own mother, was always threatening to walk out. To add to Leda’s despair, her relationship with her two daughters was not the best. Leda feels guilt.
At the beach, Elena and her doll go missing. The girl is found but not her doll; Leda has taken it. Elena is distraught for days. Leda sees the hurt she’s caused but keeps the doll. It doesn’t end well.
Reading the book elf The Lost Daughter enabled me to work out the answers to my three questions. Leda, however, is not the most reliable of narrators.
Reviewed by Clive Hodges
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elena Ferrante is a pseudonymous Italian novelist. Ferrante’s books, originally published in Italian, have been translated into many languages. Her four-book series of Neapolitan Novels are her most widely known works.
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