“My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.”
Natalie Heller Mills is living the dream – at least on screen. As a successful tradwife influencer, she has built a global brand around a romanticised vision of Christian pioneer life, where motherhood, traditional gender roles and family values take centre stage. On her farm, Yesteryear, in Idaho, the perfect life unfolds as millions of followers tune in to her carefully curated portrayal of the good old days.
But behind the idyllic façade, nothing is quite as it seems. Every aspect of life is meticulously choreographed, while hidden labour, industrial kitchens and lucrative brand partnerships keep the illusion alive. Natalie has complete control over both her family and the story she tells about herself.
Until, suddenly, she doesn't.
After suffering a mental breakdown, Natalie wakes up one morning in the year 1855.
Everything around her resembles the life she has created for herself – but the electricity, modern comforts and possibility of escape are gone. Now she is forced to experience the harsh realities of pioneer life, the very existence she has spent years romanticising and selling to her followers.
Confronted with an unfiltered reality, Natalie discovers the true cost of the ideals she has so carefully promoted: a marriage marked by violence, the loss of personal freedom and a society in which a woman's worth is measured above all by what she can do for others.
A sharp and thought-provoking story about gender, power and the dangerous longing for a past that never really existed in the way we imagine it.
