For decades, the Australian Holly Ringland went through life with a dream, that of becoming a writer. And although he looked for every way to do it, selling all his possessions at the age of 29 to go and do a master's degree in Creative Literature at the University of Manchester in England, he never dared to try - in the simplest way: sit down in front of a blank piece of paper and tell a story. When she finally did, around 2014, what emerged were the first lines of Alice Hart's The Lost Flowers, which was published four years later and made her a celebrated author. The novel was translated into 30 languages and its author will see the seven-episode miniseries based on her first book hit screens around the world this Friday on Amazon Prime.
Filmed entirely in Australia, the first chapter begins by showing the complicated childhood of the protagonist, played when she is nine years old by Alyla Browne, who adores her mother (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) and has every reason to fear her father (Charlie Vickers ). Everything changes for her the day a fire takes the lives of her parents in confusing circumstances, and she has to go live with her grandmother Jane, played by Sigourney Weaver, who is also executive producer of the series. Jane is a tough woman, who lives with Twig (Leah Purcell) and earns a living by growing wild flowers on a huge farm, where other women of the same age, who are known as the flowers, also work.
Although initially the themes are child abuse and family relationships, later on the axis changes and focuses on the now adult Alicia, played by Alycia Debnam-Carey, whom we remember for her time in Fear the Walking Dead. and her love affair with a complex man named Dylan, played by Mexican Sebastián Zurita.
As the title suggests, the other protagonists of the story are the flowers, as Ringland drew on his vast knowledge of wildflowers to include them in the story, as well as describe the region of Australia where he grew up, so it was essential that the series be recorded there with a majority of local talent. However, all attention will be on Weaver. The actress composes a memorable character, as capable of confronting a man who has mistreated a woman as of showing her most vulnerable side in her relationship with the little girl who is unexpectedly added to her life. Weaver, who in June premiered Paul Schrader's Master Gardener in Spain, will return to our cinema screens on the same day that the series debuts with Phyllis Nagy's Todas somos Jane.
