Three months after its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), The Keeping Room has been picked up by Drafthouse Films for U.S. distribution. The film stars Brit Marling (Another Earth), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), and Manu Otaru (Syriana) as two sisters and a slave who, left alone toward the end of the Civil War, must defend themselves and their home against two Union soldiers, one of whom is portrayed by Sam Worthington (Avatar).

Directed by Daniel Barber (Harry Brown) from a script by Julia Hart, the film looks to depict the transcending cruelty of war – a theme explored throughout much of cinema in 2014 (i.e. Fury, Unbroken, American Sniper). To its own credit, The Keeping Room approaches this topic off of the literal battlefield, and through a typically ignored female perspective.

Drafthouse Films has planned a theatrical release for the drama starting in September, followed by a variety of VOD, digital, DVD, and Blu-Ray platforms.