BY THE BOOK

ana Mensah, the writer, director and star of , is aware of how a brief plot summary of her film – a young woman with a complicated love life inherits a Christian bookshop – might sound like schmaltzy fare, rather than the witty and moving dark comedy compare the premise to a Hallmark movie, Mensah laughs, “It could have been! If left to my base instincts.” Instead the acclaimed indie is more complex, with an expert balancing of tone. “Really dramatic things happen and comedic things happen just on the other side; I wanted to stay in that space.”