"Higher Ground" tells the story of one woman trying to find her way to the right place -- for her -- in the religious community.
It's a personal journey of someone longing to embrace God.
"It's a lot of tolerance to say, 'Yeah, you have your own concept of God but let's explore this woman in her search to conceptualize god and holiness for herself.' And we do it with humor, which is also a very tall, delicate order," said Farmiga. "We don't laugh at them, but we laugh alongside them."
"Higher Ground" is about God and family, but because of a couple of bad words and some drawings of the male anatomy, it was appointed an "R" rating.
"And it's amazing that, the films that are rated PG-13, where you can see people getting their heads blown off and, like, blood spurting from every, you know, severed scenes -- those are PG-13," said Farmiga.
Farmiga got creative with her lack of a budget. Several costumes were found on big sale days at the Salvation Army.
And she used her mother, her mother-in-law, her grandmother, her husband, her child, her sister, her sisters-in-law and her cousins in the cast.
But now that it's over, is Farmiga back to just acting or is more directing in her future?
"Can you be satisfied with the answer that it's both? It's both. I loved it. It was a wonderful curveball surprise," said Farmiga.
"Higher Ground" goes into limited release on Friday.
