One of the biggest challenges that comes with being a parent is accepting that your child will one day be an adult who makes their own decisions. As much as you raise them to be strong and independent, a person who won’t buckle when faced with the various adversities of the world, deep down, they will always be your baby. That person who adhered to your words, for the first stage of their life at least, with minimal pushback.

Those unwilling to loosen the clinched fist of parental control, expecting their words to remain the law of the land, will undoubtedly find themselves in a battle of wills with their child’s own evolving world view. It is this tightly woven ball of familial tension that Jody Wilson’s charming feature debut The Bearded Girl attempts to unravel.

Setting her coming-of-age fairytale within the confines of a sideshow, a fitting metaphor for the awkwardness of adolescence which often leads one to feeling like an outsider, Wilson introduces audiences to Cleo (Anwen O’Driscoll) on the day her first chin hair sprouts. While such an event might be as mortifying as a pimple to other girls her age, it is the confirming mark of destiny for her. Living and working at the Nocturna circus, where her family has run the bearded woman exhibit for 88 generations, Cleo’s facial hair, and the ritual associated with it, solidifies that she, and not her confident and free-spirited sister Josephine (Skylar Radzion), will one day lead the sideshow.

Taking up the family legacy of sword-swallowing in their nightly performance, it does not take long for Cleo to start butting and her overbearing mother Lady Andre (Jessica Paré) to butt heads. The young woman’s desire to incorporate some new ideas into the show falls on deaf ears as her mother believes that sticking with tradition will continue to be the key to their success.

Engulfed in a tug-of-war where neither side wants to give the rope any slack, the mother and daughter soon find themselves diverging paths. Cleo begins embracing the rebellious sense of self-discovery that comes with being a teenager, which includes casual hookups with other sideshow acts, while growing more curious about the outside world. Whereas her mother continues to double down on her belief that tough love, which is how she was raised, is all that is needed to keep her daughter within fold.

Her frustrations with Cleo’s disobedience and increasing lack of discipline, as she constantly arrives late to rehearsals, is not the only thing filling up Lady Andre’s plate. A shady businessman, Richard ”Dick” Sutherland (Jeff Gladstone), wants to turn the land the sideshow is on into a casino parking lot. Although Lady Andre still holds the deed to the land for a few more weeks, uncertainty grows when Cleo, who would legally assume the title of the land, disappears.

Reaching her breaking point, and longing to live life on her own terms, Cleo makes the bold decision to leave her family behind. Venturing into the world outside the sideshow, where conformity means shaving her facial hair daily, Cleo’s taste of freedom opens up new possibilities, including potential romance with Blaze (Keenan Tracey), a young man who she has a crush on. However, she will be forced to decide whether such freedom is worth destroying the family business in the process.

As Cleo attempts to fit into her new environment, Wilson’s film asks the audience to reflect on the various ill-fitting masks that we wear at different stages in life. Her film may be films with quirky characters whom other would deem outcasts, but The Bearded Girl finds its joy and heart in those who remain true to themselves and their community.

Championing the importance of self-acceptance and finding one’s voice in the face of those who attempt to silence it, even if their motives stem from a place of love, the film’s warm beating heart is infectious.

Wilson’s script may unfold in a rather straightforward manner, as one would expect from a coming-of-age tale, but it is not less engaging to behold. Characters such as Cleo and Lady Andre feel richly drawn and identifiable. One doesn’t need to strip away their outwardly appearance to see the universal nature of their dynamics.

It also helps that Wilson gets wonderful performances from her ensemble cast that help to ground the film’s themes within its fantastical setting. O’Driscoll brings right mixture of vulnerability, longing, and angst needed to capture Cleo’s conflicted state. She offers a nice contrast to Paré’s equally sensational turn Lady Andre, a mother who is desperately clinging to the only way of life and motherhood she has ever known. The mother/daughter bond, and the strains it goes through, is perfectly accentuated by the supporting cast, especially Skylar Radzion scene-stealing turn as Josephine, who each make their roles, no matter how small, feel like an integral part to the film’s world building.

All of this helps to make Wilson’s grounded fairytale come to vivid life. The Bearded Girl is a delightfully charming coming-of-age tale that celebrates embracing yourself over wearing the bland mask of conformity.

The Bearded Girl screened as part of Fantasia Fest 2025 .