Eleven-year-old Ama and her mother Grace live in Glasgow in their gentle but isolated world, which they obsessively create around themselves. The mother-daughter duo have formed a deep bond that protects them from outsiders. Grace has a mantra that reads: “We can’t trust anyone”. She would prefer that she and her daughter never have to leave the house.

But when they start over in Glasgow, where Grace works as a cleaner in a shopping center, things begin to change. Ama’s burgeoning puberty and her need to grow and develop challenge the rules of her isolated world. Then, when a fire breaks out in an apartment building across the street and Ama breaks the protective rules, Grace must gradually confront herself with a past she finds hard to forget.

Adura Onashile is an award-winning British actress, playwright, screenwriter and film and theater director based in Glasgow. She has directed productions for The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, winning a Fringe First, Edinburgh Guide Best Scottish Contribution to Drama, and getting nominated for the Amnesty International Freedom of Speech Award. She wrote and directed “Ghosts” for the National Theatre of Scotland in 2021. In 2020, she wrote and directed her screen debut, EXPENSIVE SHIT, a BAFTA Scotland nominated short which premiered at BFI London Film Festival 2020. GIRL is her feature film debut.

Filmography: 2020 EXPENSIVE SHIT (short film), 2023 GIRL