Director Kornél Mundruczó’s first English language film, Pieces of a Woman, recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The film stars Shia Labeouf alongside Vanessa Kirby and is being executive produced by Martin Scorsese.

The film is about a Boston couple grieving after the loss of their newborn baby.

“I wanted to talk about a taboo, which I think really exists,” Writer Kata Weber said. “Women who lose their babies are so relegated to isolation. People (around them) just don’t know how to deal with these losses and tragedies, both within society and family. That was the origin.”

Mundruczó says that he wanted his first English-language film to be a personal and simple story that ‘wouldn’t be eaten up by studios.’

Early reactions to the film have praised Kirby’s performance, with Variety’s review calling it ‘the performance of her career.’ Kirby has also been commended for her performance in another film that debuted at Venice Film Festival, The World to Come, a romantic period piece where she plays a woman on the frontier.

Mundruczó recently voiced his support for gender-neutral awards following the Berlin Film Festival’s decision to get rid of gendered performance awards, and comments made by Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton.