Vera Farmiga as: Corinne
Directed by: Vera Farmiga
Selected Cast: Taissa Farmiga, Donna Murphy, John Hawkes, Nina Arianda & Joshua Leonard
Written by: Carolyn S. Briggs
Release Year: 2011
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R

Depicts the landscape of a tight-knit spiritual community thrown off-kilter when one of their own begins to question her faith. Inspired by Carolyn S. Briggs' memoir, This Dark World, the film tells the story of a thoughtful woman's struggles with belief, love, and trust.

Faith, love and honesty are the cornerstones of this story of a woman who learns that no matter how many times she loses her footing, she has within herself all that's necessary to get to a higher place.

• "When you direct it's two years out of your life, but if you're able to do this kind of deeply satisfying work then it's all worth it."

• "I wanted to play the character so much that I could have made it for pennies … I would have bought my own Red camera and shot with non-actors."

• "I bleed into every character I play. You’re using your own instrument, your memories, you’re using your emotions, you’re using your brain, your unconscious and subconscious. It’s very much me and then it’s not me at all, it’s Carolyn Briggs. It’s sort of the kinetic energies between the two of us that’s coming through, and we forged a narrative from there. I think in order to touch people in a personal way you have to come from a personal place. Simply put, the story was about a woman who was just trying to live a passionate existence and have intimacy in all these relationships and yet not sacrifice her authenticity or her sense of genuine self. It’s very easy to relate to that idea."

• "I had no toilet, which is not a good thing for a woman in the second trimester of pregnancy. We had a Porta-Potty that the entire cast shared. But it’s an epic film in the sense that we had 21 live music performances, 58 shooting locations, a massive cast, three different time periods, costume, hair, makeup, wardrobe, furniture, car changes... it’s a lot. We shot it all in 26 days. When you’re directing yourself and there is very little time you can’t always view what you’ve shot so you got to operate from instinct."

• "I have a deep respect for all religions and I always kind of admired men and women of great faith. My father and mother are both those people, my father especially, I’ve coveted what he had. I always yearned for that. So gosh, I don’t have a bone to pick or an axe to grind with the community. I think, to me, I find there’s two kinds of films, ones that proselytize, are made for the community trying to convert you, or other ones that poke fun at the community. I didn’t want to make either kind of film. I wanted to make a different kind of film, I wanted to make a film for believers and non-believers. I wanted to not judge this topic, the topic of not-knowing, the topic of questioning. I didn’t want to judge its characters. No character comes out of this film more enlightened than the other, even Corinne. So that’s really the approach. I wanted to be very reverent, so to speak. I wanted to be in it, I didn’t want to ride above it. I just wanted to be in it and not judge anyone."

• "All I was interested in was telling a story of legitimate struggle. I wanted them talking in real ways."

• Carolyn Briggs
"Vera flew to Iowa and sat in my living room with me. We looked -chapter-by-chapter - through my book and chose which scenes we thought would work for a movie. Her husband even showed me how to use a computer program that would help me write the screenplay. The entire experience was so surreal; it's still so unbelievable to me."

• Coming Soon!

• Filmed in USA (view all.)

• 4 nominations (view all.)

• Vera also starred in the movie Quid Pro Quo (2006) with Joshua Leonard.

• Vera's husband, sister, grandmother, her son Fynn, her husbands grandmother and sister starred in the film as well.

• The film was shot in 26 days and for less than a million bucks. Vera was also pregnant with her second child.

• At the therapist's office, the wall clock is clearly not working as the second hand is not moving.