Filmhouse/New Kalamata Cinema Club-WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING

The Filmhouse/New Kalamata Cinema Club, with the participation of the Reading Club of the Messenian Writers Union, presents a special screening of the film Where the Crawdads Sing, directed by Olivia Newman and based on the acclaimed novel by Delia Owens. The evening will include a greeting and a brief presentation of the book by Nikolina Lekka, president of the Messenian Writers Association.

How easily does a community construct the monster it needs? And how innocent can someone remain when they grow up outside its conventions, on the margins of its gaze, where nature becomes homeland and silence a way of existence? Where the Crawdads Sing is far more than a carefully crafted mystery. It unfolds like a dark ballad about loneliness, survival, and the quiet violence with which social respectability crushes anything it cannot name.

In the marshlands of North Carolina, Kya grows up abandoned by the world of people, shaped instead by the rhythms of a raw and untamed natural landscape. Water, birds, mud and tides become her vocabulary, her shield against a society that has already condemned her before truly knowing her. When a tragedy shakes the local community, Kya immediately becomes the perfect suspect: an outsider, distant, “different.” At that moment, the film reveals its deeper concern, not simply who committed the crime, but how guilt can be manufactured through prejudice, social exclusion and fear of the unfamiliar.

Adapted from Owens’ bestselling novel, Newman’s film moves between melodrama, courtroom narrative and the atmospheric tradition of Southern Gothic. Nature here is not merely a backdrop but a living presence, a silent witness carrying memories that people try to bury. Beneath its romantic surface and mystery plot, the film speaks sharply about female resilience, the cruelty of social judgment and the cost of growing up without ever being taught how to belong.

The film also received international recognition, including a nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2023 for Carolina by Taylor Swift.

Screening Information

Thursday, March 26th

Where the Crawdads Sing
Mystery / Drama / Romance | 13+ | 2022 | USA | 125’

Directed by: Olivia Newman
Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, David Strathairn

21:15 | Labour Centre

General admission: 5 €
Reduced admission: 3 € (unemployed, large families and students)
Free entry for viewers under 18.