Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson and Peter Sarsgaard have joined the cast of Maggie Gyllenhaal's feature directorial debut The Lost Daughter.

Colman will play a university professor on a seaside summer hoiday who becomes consumed by Nina (Johnson) and her young daughter, as she watches them on the beach.

Gyllenhaal wrote the script based on a novel by Elena Ferrante from 2006. The film tells the story of a divorced, middle-aged mother and English professor named Leda (Colman) who becomes consumed by Nina (Johnson) and her young daughter, as she watches them on the beach. Unnerved by their compelling relationship, and their raucous and menacing extended family, she becomes overwhelmed by her own memories of the terror, confusion and intensity of early motherhood.

Forced to consider the unconventional choices she made as a young mother and the consequences they had for her family, she begins to unravel.

Source: Press Release