Catherine Called Birdy review – the perils of medieval teendom in Lena Dunham’s sparkling comedy

Lena Dunham, who turned wry solipsism into a career with the HBO series Girls and the indie movie Tiny Furniture, is perhaps not the first name you would think of to adapt and direct a period film set in medieval England. But Catherine Called Birdy, based on the 1994 novel by Karen Cushman, is a peppy, irreverent delight. Following the pig-wrestling, husband-repelling antics of 14-year-old Lady Catherine (AKA Birdy), played by an irrepressible Bella Ramsey, this is a teen comedy with a refreshingly forthright approach to everything from puberty to the status of 13th-century women as chattels to be bartered.

After her charming but feckless father (Andrew Scott) has frittered away the family wealth, Catherine finds herself in an unfortunate position. Her marriage, to a title-hungry gentleman of means, is the last hope of solvency for her family. But Catherine has other ideas, and sets about scaring off her suitors with every unsavoury trick in her extensive repertoire. Ramsey, so poised as a child-queen in Game of Thrones, here brings a skittish mischief to her role; Dunham directs with liberal use of goats, geese and chaotic energy.

• In cinemas now and on Amazon Prime from 7 October