As research for Sister Wives began, particularly into the community that inspires the film, I couldn’t believe the stories I was reading. Turbulent tales of child marriage, domestic violence, sexual abuse, underage pregnancies; it felt like “The Handmaids Tale”, but real, happening now today in 2023. However, I also read beautiful accounts of forbidden love, brave escapes, families reunited and long estranged friendships flourishing once more, and to me, love in the most unlikely of places, is love I want to watch.

On first seeing footage and photographs of this community, I couldn’t believe it was modern-day, it looked Victorian – the women in long pastel-coloured prairie dresses, every inch of skin covered from wrist to ankle, their hair, never cut, impossibly long, woven into waist-length braids. Thematically, here I will draw inspiration from M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village”, the audience should feel shocked to discover these people are in fact living in the 21st century.

The colour palette will be dulled, reflecting the mundanity of their lives, except the girls dresses, these will be vibrant and accentuated, drawing inspiration from the infamous pop of the red dress in “Schindler’s List”. The music will be unexpectedly contrasting, electronic and seductive, pulsing through the bodies of our protagonists and audience, beating like a second heart in your chest, think “Drive”, think “Lost In Translation” – the condemned music Kaidence and Galilee would listen to if only they could.

We will witness their isolation, their confines, feeling it in the colourless, decor-less homes, the grandiose, clinical white churches, the vast lakes and forests where no one can hear you scream, the rolling hills with nothing for miles and the cold steel metal gates that keep them.

Sister Wives will offer a vital perspective to the canon of coming-out films; at its core, it is a story of female friendship, of allyship, a story of exploration, both physical and psychological, as together they find the courage to dream in tandem, of a world beyond the walls.

Sister Wives will offer a fresh take on the coming-of-age genre, one that resonates with teens and adults alike, queer or straight, religious or not, a film for anyone that has ever had their heart torn in two.