Hidden Cinematic Gems of 2011

2011 has seen some incredible blockbusters hit the big screen. The year kicked off with The King's Speech and Black Swan, the summer was spectacular with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Super 8 and two Marvel films Thor and Captain America. There was the brilliantly witty and original Bridesmaids and some incredibly successful art-house films including We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Tree of Life. Even though it was widely criticized by critics, even The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn did tremendously well at the box office thanks to its massive fan base. And the year isn't up yet - we still have the Sherlock Holmes sequel, Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to go.


But in amongst all that spectacle, a few gems have hit our screens and fizzled quietly away almost as quickly as they arrived. They may not have made millions at the box office but they deserve to be recognised as great pieces of cinema and I strongly urge you to check them out as soon as you can.

First off is Oranges and Sunshine, the true story of social worker Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson) who stumbled across one of the biggest cover-ups in recent British history. Humphreys helped a young Australian woman who was trying to track down her birth parents. What she discovered was that thousands of British children were removed from their parents, told their parents were dead (when in fact they were not) and shipped off to Australia for a better life. Many were left in care, some abused, but largely they were forgotten about. Humphreys then takes it upon herself to track down all the families she can to reunite them. The stories are heartbreaking but instead of focusing on them, the film beautifully stays with Humphreys, who divides her time between her home in the UK and a house in Australia, away from her family and dealing daily with the horrifying stories each new person tells her.

Albatross was a hilarious surprise when I saw it. I didn't really know much about it, except that Jessica Brown Findlay from Downton Abbey was in it. What I found was a brilliantly naughty and oh-so-funny script about what happens when an outspoken young girl starts her cleaning job at a B&B and gets involved in the lives of the family who run it. The film has a British cast that shine in its countryside setting. Also starring Julia Ormond and Felicity Jones, Albatross was a shining example of originality and cleverly tongue-in-cheek.

I was apprehensive about seeing Tyrannosaur as it was meant to be incredibly violent. It was even more violent than I had previously imagined but what I did discover was an incredibly powerful film about an unlikely friendship between a violent man and a woman suffering domestic abuse at the hands of her husband. Written and directed by Paddy Considine and with a performance from Olivia Colman - known before this for her comedic roles - that blew me away, the film is flawless - if you can handle the violence. I truly hope that Colman and Considine are recognised for their work and not just in the UK.

I stumbled across Welcome to the South (Benvenuti al Sud) entirely by accident as it was part of the local Italian Cinema selection. What I found was an absolutely hilarious, laugh-out-loud film about the misconceptions of others. When a man in the north of Italy is punished for lying at work by being sent to the office nobody wants in the south, he prepares - rather comically - by putting on a bullet-proof vest. When he gets there, he finds that they may speak funny and they may have a different way of approaching things but they are still great people. He soon befriends them and starts to enjoy life their way.

Oranges and Sunshine (Plus Q&A)

Your parents are dead so you may as well go to Australia. It's sunny all the time and you can pick Oranges from Orange trees every morning for breakfast.

This is what was told to a young boy in care in England in the 1950s who was then shipped over to Australia with promises of a new life. Sadly though, this is not what awaited the thousands of children who were shipped over there during the course of more than a decade. What awaited them was slave labour in blistering heat and no family, no love, no support. Just abuse and the most degrading punishments for being weak and useless.

But this film is not their story.

This film is the story of Margaret Humphreys (played by the brilliant Emily Watson), a social worker in the 1980s who randomly came across the story of a girl who had been shipped to Australia as a young girl as she had been put into care after the death of her parents. She was now in the UK trying to track down her birth certificate and identity. While working with this woman, Margaret discovers that the woman's mother who was supposedly long dead is actually alive and well.

This starts Margaret's investigation, along with her eternally supportive husband (also a Social Worker), into the lives of thousands of children who experienced similar stories. Margaret starts to spend months away from her family and young children interviewing these people in Australia and trying to track down their roots. In doing so, the detail of these stories starts to take its toll on her health and life in general but she carries on regardless in what becomes a touching story of human longing and the search for meaning in life through history, identity and family.

I should also mention that it was brilliant to see Hugo "Mr Anderson" Weaving playing such a loveable character. His portrayal of Jack was touching, funny, heartbreaking and honest and made me want to give him a hug every time he was on screen. His relationship with his newly discovered English sister and their search for their mother is one of the most endearing parts of the film. And he comes to Margaret's rescue when people take a severe disliking to her. What a guy!

I was fortunate to attend the Q&A which followed the screening and hear Director Jim Loach's opinion on its conception and the whole process. As he told us, there were many ways this film could have gone. There are of course thousands of stories to be told by those on the boats, many of those violent and horrific. 

Loach chose a different, more subtle and completely beautiful approach. It's not overly dramatic. There are heartbreaking moments, scary moments when angry people start to threaten Margaret and tearjerking moments of pure joy at the reunions Margaret helps to arrange. But it remains personal. We are told snippets of the different people she meets but only snippets. The most poignant moment for me was when Margaret finally goes to the place the children were - for want of a better word - raised. All the snippets she has been told overwhelm her understandably and it's heart-wrenching to see. She feels their pain and wants to do so much for them but knows that there is a limit to what she can do.

That's where the film gets its brilliance. There are no easy fixes, no happy endings. The childhoods these people had cannot be undone. And the mass deportations happened for such a long period of time, that as Loach explained - no one person can be held accountable. It was only in the last 3 years that the Australian and British governments finally acknowledged what happened and apologised for it. And this all started over 20 years ago.

All Margaret can try to do is reunite them with their surviving relatives - and for many of them it will now be too late.

Loach also added that he invited the Pope to the original screening in Italy - but was not surprised that he was a no show, given the way the film highlights horrific acts done by the "brothers" who were in charge of the care of these children. More appaling still is that none of them have been punished for their acts as many (Loach informed us) were deemed unfit to stand trial due to age/illness.

The film is brilliant, beautiful and honest. Go and see it.

5 out of 5 FOBLES!!!

LE xx