British actress Jessica Barden makes a play for Stateside stardom in
writer/director Nicole Riegel's Holler. Barden plays a young woman who joins a scrap metal crew to raise the
funds for the college she's been accepted to, but is forced to bend the law
to meet her financial target. Gus Halper, Pamela Adlon and
Becky Ann Baker also star.
Speaking about her film, Riegel says "My film is a semi-autobiographical story about how challenging it was to
transcend where I came from as a young woman, both practically and
emotionally. Like Ruth, the teenage girl at the center of my story, and
many young girls across America, I was vulnerable to a fractured system
that felt rigged against me, particularly when it came to access to
education for young people living in the margins. That lack of access made
me feel like my voice didn’t matter, and that is a horrible feeling for
any young girl to carry with her. In order to pursue the life that I
wanted, I had to leave behind the family and community that created me
which felt like a betrayal. Holler is not only a glimpse
into that part of my life, but also a window into the lives of thousands
of girls who, like Ruth, live in towns that are currently in a state of
atrophy from fewer opportunities and a shrinking population. They are
faced with the choice of forced reinvention or abandoning their hometowns
completely."
Holler is in US cinemas and VOD from June 11th.
Check out the trailer and poster below.
The official synopsis reads:
In a forgotten pocket of Southern Ohio where American manufacturing and opportunity are drying up, a determined young woman finds a ticket out when she is accepted to college. Alongside her older brother, Ruth Avery joins a dangerous scrap metal crew in order to pay her way. Together, they spend one brutal winter working the scrap yards during the day and stealing valuable metal from the once thriving factories by night. With her goal in sight, Ruth finds that the ultimate cost of an education for a girl like her may be more than she bargained for, and she soon finds herself torn between a promising future and the family she would leave behind.
