She shucks sea shells by the sea shore.

Self taught spinster palaeontologist, Mary Anning, lives on the wild southern English coastline at Lym Regis, unearthing the prehistoric, the fossil, the relics of sea creatures preserved.

She dwells with her aged widowed mother and ekes out a living selling her discoveries to scientific institutions and rich hobbyists happy to shell out for fossilised exoskeletons.

One such enthusiast is Roderick Murchison who entices Mary with earnings should the shell searcher become chaperone to his wife, Charlotte, who is delicate and recuperating after a miscarriage. Strapped for cash despite her scientific splash, Mary begrudgingly takes on the fragile wife, while Murchison goes off on a European expedition

Privilege and poverty grate against each other in the primary stage of their unwanted predicament, but despite the chasm between their social spheres, Mary and Charlotte begin to bond, aided by a bout of nursing by Mary after Charlotte’s fragility brings on a life threatening fever.

From a starting point of disparate disconnect AMMONITE evolves into desperate connection, unearthing a dormant sexuality. What was thought extinct in Mary, erotic emotion, is revivified by Charlotte, an inversion of ammonite, the fossil made flesh.

AMMONITE is God’s Own Country for girls, with writer director Francis Lee delving again into same sex dynamics. It is is redolent of and has resonance to last year’s lush lesbian odyssey, PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN ON FIRE. It has the same exquisite kindling of kindred spirits which transcend class and prevailing patriarchy.

Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan lend their considerable star power to Mary and Charlotte, and Gemma Jones as Molly, Mary’s mother and Fiona Shaw as Elizabeth Philpott, the local apothecary and Mary’s former lover give solid gold support.

Production values are first class with costume design by Oscar winning costumier, Michael O’Connor, cinematography by Stephane Fontaine and a gorgeous score by Volker Bertelmann and Dustin O’Halloran.

If your fossicking for some serious film fare featuring fulsome and forthright females, AMMONITE is dynamite.