Director: Sam Yates
A family's quiet stability cracks open in "Magpie," a 2024 British thriller from director Sam Yates about how quickly ordinary domestic life can curdle.
What is Magpie about?
When a young girl lands a role acting alongside a famous, controversial star, her parents' marriage becomes the real subject under scrutiny. Proximity to fame reshapes the family's dynamic in uncomfortable ways, exposing resentments and imbalances that had been sitting quietly beneath the surface of everyday routine. The film tracks a couple whose lives were already fragile before the disruption, watching as jealousy, ambition, and long-buried grievances rise to the top once outside attention enters their world. Rather than treating the celebrity subplot as pure spectacle, the story uses it as a pressure test, pushing each parent toward decisions that reveal who they really are when the stakes turn personal. It's a tightly wound character study dressed as a thriller, more interested in psychological unraveling than in plot twists for their own sake.
Cast & crew
Daisy Ridley leads the cast in a role that leans away from her better-known blockbuster work, with Matilda Lutz and Shazad Latif playing key parts opposite her. Alistair Petrie, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Niall Wright, and Cherrelle Skeete complete the supporting ensemble in this UK production.
Context & significance
"Magpie" arrived in 2024 with a lean 90-minute runtime, a length that suits its focused, slow-burn approach to marital tension rather than a sprawling ensemble story. It carries a 6.0 rating on IMDb, positioning it as a smaller-scale British thriller that trades big set pieces for close character observation. Sam Yates directs with an eye for the discomfort that builds inside a single household rather than external action.
Where & how to watch
"Magpie" is available on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, giving Farsi-speaking audiences flexibility in how they watch. A free K-Time account login is required to stream the film, though this page and its details can be read without signing in.