Higher Ground is a 2011 American drama film

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 starring Vera Farmiga

Vera Farmiga

Vera Ann Farmiga is an American actress and director. Farmiga made her film debut in the 1998 drama thriller Return to Paradise. This was followed by supporting roles in the 2000 romantic film Autumn in New York and the 2001 television series UC: Undercover...

. The film is also Farmiga's directorial debut.

Plot

Pregnant, married, and awkward at eighteen years old, Corinne Briggs grows more and more interested in Jesus, eventually giving herself over to a radical New Testament church. Amidst her community of self-described "Jesus Freaks," Corinne's daily life consists of hours of Bible study, alternative family practices and bracing for the oncoming Rapture. It's only when her marriage begins to unravel that Corinne dares to question the religious dogma she has embraced for her entire adult life.

Cast

• Vera Farmiga
  Vera Farmiga
  Vera Ann Farmiga is an American actress and director. Farmiga made her film debut in the 1998 drama thriller Return to Paradise. This was followed by supporting roles in the 2000 romantic film Autumn in New York and the 2001 television series UC: Undercover...
  
   as Corinne
• Donna Murphy
  Donna Murphy
  Donna Murphy is an American stage, film, television actress and singer.Murphy has won two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical for her roles in Passion as Fosca and in The King and I as Anna Leonowens...
  
   as Kathleen
• John Hawkes
  John Hawkes
  John Hawkes, born John Clendennin Talbot Burne Hawkes, Jr. , was a postmodern American novelist, known for the intensity of his work, which suspended the traditional constraints of the narrative.-Biography:...
  
   as CW
• Nina Arianda
  Nina Arianda
  Nina Arianda is an American theatre and film actress.-Early life and education:Arianda grew up in Clifton, New Jersey and Heidelberg, Germany...
  
   as Wendy
• Dagmara Dominczyk as Annika
• Bill Irwin
  Bill Irwin
  William Mills "Bill" Irwin is an American actor and clown noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He is known for his vaudeville-style stage acts, but has made a number of appearances on film and television and won a Tony Award for a dramatic role on...
  
   as Pastor Bud
• Joshua Leonard
  Joshua Leonard
  Joshua Granville Leonard is an American actor, known for his role in The Blair Witch Project.-Early life:Leonard was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Joann, an operator of a children's theatre, and Robert Leonard, a theater professor. He was raised in State College, Pennsylvania...
  
   as Ethan
• Ebon-Moss Bachrach as Mark
• Taissa Farmiga
  Taissa Farmiga
  Taissa Farmiga is an American actress, best known for her roles in the FX TV series American Horror Story and the film Higher Ground. She is the younger sister of Oscar nominated actress Vera Farmiga....
  
   as Young Corinne

Production

Higher Ground is loosely based on the memoir This Dark World: A Story of Faith Found and Lost by author Carolyn Briggs, who co-wrote the screenplay. Filming took place in June 2010 in Kingston, New York

Kingston, New York

Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, USA. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. It became New York's first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British Oct. 16, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga...

.

Release

The film premiered in January 2011 at the Sundance Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

 and received a limited release

Limited release

Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....

 in the US by Sony Pictures Classics

Sony Pictures Classics

Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...

on August 26, 2011.

External links

• Justin Chang, Variety review (January 24, 2011)