Hushpuppy lives with her father, Wink, who is played by Dwight Henry, another local non-actor.

NEWYORKER: Going South

Wink is not the father that Hushpuppy's vanished mother would have wanted him to be.

WSJ: 'Beasts of the Southern Wild': Untamed, Extraordinary, Exquisite | Reviews by Joe Morgenstern

Zeitlin had begun the search for Hushpuppy in early 2009 in New Orleans.

BBC: Entertainment & Arts

"Get in here, " a good-natured waitress at Elysian Fields tells Hushpuppy who, in the midst of everything else, has been searching for her dead mother.

WSJ: 'Beasts of the Southern Wild': Untamed, Extraordinary, Exquisite | Reviews by Joe Morgenstern

It didn't take Zeitlin long to realize he'd found his Hushpuppy.

BBC: Entertainment & Arts

Hushpuppy's shrill trills of joy, and the slow burn of her comprehension as she sees her father where he'd feared to be, in a hospital bed, plugged into the wall.

WSJ: 'Beasts of the Southern Wild': Untamed, Extraordinary, Exquisite | Reviews by Joe Morgenstern