Catherine Called Birdy’s genius choice to cast Bella Ramsey as its scrappy hero

Sometimes you know exactly the right person has been chosen to play a certain role. This is one of those moments.

Lena Dunham made her name by creating a series that wanted to be the voice of a generation – or at least a voice of a generation, as it went.

Through Girls, the then-26-year-old filmmaker, writer and actor explored the lives, loves and neuroses of contemporary youth experience, albeit a very specific slice of middle-class white women living in Brooklyn.

Girls had its frustrations and flaws, but at its best, it was vivid and nuanced, and captured the complicated ambitions and foibles of a young woman and her social circle.

Catherine Called Birdy, which Dunham directed and wrote, adapted from a novel by Karen Cushman, has a similar spirit but a very different milieu. It’s set some seven centuries ago, in medieval England.

Bella Ramsey as Birdy. Picture: Alex Bailey/Amazon Prime Video

While its hero is younger, the character is just as vivacious as any of Dunham’s earlier creations. If anything, despite her tender age, she understands more about her world than Girls’ Hannah Horvath ever did.

The casting of Bella Ramsey, who is best known for her scene-stealing turn as the self-possessed Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones, is genius because she brings that firecracker energy to a role that demands nothing less.

Ramsey has to be able to keep the audience on her side to her cause despite a rash of immature acts – the fact she does is testament to both the performer and Dunham’s balance of the film’s confident tone.

Lady Catherine doesn’t want to be called by her name. She prefers to be known as Birdy. The 14-year-old daughter of a titled but poor nobleman, her father (Andrew Scott) wants to marry her off to someone whose fortunes overflow.

Catherine Called Birdy is directed by Lena Dunham. Picture: Alex Bailey/Amazon Prime Video

Birdy is having none of it, determined to set her own path towards a future she chooses for herself. She isn’t sure what that is – what 14-year-old does? – but she knows it doesn’t involve an arranged marriage with pustuled old men.

Driven by her considerable wits and a strange crush on her uncle George (Joe Alwyn), Birdy plots to foil all of her dad’s attempts at matchmaking in a series of droll and endearing set pieces.

But as much as Birdy is smart, she also still has a lot to learn, especially when it comes to other people including her friend Aelis (Isis Hainsworth), her nursemaid Morwenna (Lesley Sharp) and even her vainglorious father.

Catherine Called Birdy is a charming movie which uses its medieval setting to tell what is, ultimately, a contemporary story about the expectations on girls and women, and their defiance of those constricting roles.

It’s not revelatory in that ambition in that it’s not punching out any new insights. But it is confident, fresh and playful storytelling and Ramsey imbues Birdy with a real vigour and heart.

Rating: 3.5/5

Catherine Called Birdy is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video