“Appropriate Behavior” writer-director Desiree Akhavan is stepping behind the camera again. The “Girls” and “Flowers” actress has signed on to co-write and direct “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” a coming-of-age film based on Emily Danforth’s 2012 novel of the same name. Chloe Grace Moretz and “American Honey” breakout Sasha Lane will star in the indie drama.

Co-written by Cecilia Frugiuele, “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” is “set in 1993 and centered on a girl forced into a gay conversion therapy center after getting caught with the prom queen,” the announcement summarizes. Moretz will play the lead, an orphan who lives with her “ultra-conservative aunt.” Lane will portray her friend, another “disciple” at the conversation therapy center.

Akhavan made her feature debut with 2014’s “Appropriate Behavior,” a semi-autobiographical comedy about a bisexual Brooklyn-based woman struggling with a break up. Matters are further complicated by the fact that she hasn’t come out to her Iranian family, who believed that her ex was merely her roommate. Akhavan was nominated for a 2015 Indie Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay for the film.

In an interview with Women and Hollywood, Akhavan said that she hoped audiences who saw “Appropriate Behavior” would leave the theater “laughing and relating to a character who may seem very distant from themselves. I wanted to make a film which happened to be about a gay
Iranian, but didn’t feel like taking your medicine,” she explained.

Beachside and Parkville Pictures are producing “The Miseducation of Cameron Post.” Akhavan and Olivier Kaempfer are serving as executive producers on the project, which will co-star Jennifer Ehle (“Fifty Shades of Grey,” “Zero Dark Thirty”).

Moretz’s recent credits include “The 5th Wave” and “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising.” Lane is nominated for acting awards at the upcoming British Independent Film Awards and the IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards for her performance in Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey.” She’s signed on to a number of projects, including sci-fi “Hunting Lila” and the comedy “Shoplifters of the World.”