The film adaptation of Delia Owens’ 2018 novel Where The Crawdads Sing has been eagerly anticipated almost since the novel’s phenomenal popularity surpassed all expectations. Taking place in the 1960s, the storey follows Kya’s coming-of-age as she grows up in the wetlands of the Deep South after being abandoned by her family. The storey also includes a murder mystery, with the two strands woven together by a strong sense of place. Being rejected by almost everyone in her life, Kya immerses herself in the natural world around her, raising herself and her children in a dilapidated shack by the water.
The casting of Daisy Edgar-Jones, star of the hit Netflix series Normal People, as Kya only served to raise the stakes for the Reese Witherspoon-produced film. In addition to Taylor John Smith, who appeared in the excellent limited series Sharp Objects and played Tate, the local fisherman who befriends her, she is joined by Harris Dickinson, another British actor who will soon be seen alongside Emma Corrin in the series Retreat and who will play Chase, the high-school football star who also enters her world.
Despite the fact that Owens’ novel is set in the marshes of North Carolina, the filming took place in Louisiana, in the vicinity of New Orleans, for the most part. However, while the city is a popular filming location, it offers something distinct from the voyeuristic cliches of Live and Let Die or Angel Heart, the plantation horrors of 12 Years a Slave or Django Unchained, or even the natural beauty of the bayou as seen in Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Barkley Cove, the fishing village closest to Kya’s home, was played by Houma, which is located 50 miles southwest of the city on the Louisiana coast. The area around Lafayette Street was transformed into a version of the American South from the 1950s to the 1960s, with local businesses transformed into a cinema, barbershop, hardware store, and Schweigman’s Furniture shop. The Dog-gone diner, on the other hand, was filmed on location at a branch of the Joe’s Café chain on Barataria Boulevard in Marrero, which is located in the southern part of the city.
Nonetheless, Kya’s house in the marshes, which was filmed in the Northshore area, on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain, was the show’s most important location. This area contains 80,000 acres of wetland, with a large portion of it designated as a wildlife refuge. Despite filming taking place from April to July 2021, the production’s biggest problem was not illness-related shutdowns, but extreme weather, with lightning storms, floods, and heat making it difficult to complete their shoot.
The cast, on the other hand, made the most of the region’s natural beauty. According to Vanity Fair, they went on kayaking excursions and visited Frenchmen Street, which is known for its famous music bars. They also went to a crawfish boil. Certainly, Edgar-Jones enjoyed the setting: ‘It was such an incredible experience,’ she said in an interview with Wonderland magazine. The scenery was breathtaking, and I’d never been in or seen anything like it before. It was a wonderful place to spend some time. Natural forces performed a great deal of the work for us; nature itself serves as a major character in the film.’ She is backed up by stills from the shoot, with images of daybreak across the water demonstrating that the region is a natural paradise that is well deserving of its time in the spotlight.
The film ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ will be released in theatres on Friday, July 22, 2022.