The subject matter of "Oranges and Sunshine" is almost too disturbing to be believed. And yet, remarkably, it is the true recounting of one of the largest scandals of the last few decades. In 1986, a British social worker named Margaret Humphreys started to piece together an amazing and harrowing story that involved the mass deportation of children from the United Kingdom to Australia. What she discovered was simply stunning. The scandal involved political corruption and cover-up, religious impropriety, human rights violations, slave labor, systematic abuse and a government program that divided hundreds of families and disappeared countless minor children. This is such a grand and epic tale, it's hard to imagine that a film discussing these atrocities wouldn't be aggressively in-your-face. But the beauty of "Oranges and Sunshine" is that it takes a quieter approach and as things start to unfold, the dramatic weight of the situation really sneaks up on you and bowls you over!A restrained Emily Watson plays Humphreys, a woman who didn't ask to be thrust into a worldwide spotlight. In the beginning of the film, she is approached by a woman for help finding her parents. This is when she firsts hears about children being shipped to Australia. Initially reticent and disbelieving, she soon hears a corroboration of this tale. She starts to dig deeper and push further, working between the U.K. and Australia to start repairing families. It consumes her life and livelihood, but she is pushed by a sense of justice. As word gets out, she is a savior to many but an embarrassment to others. And as the unfolding allegations put many important figures in an unfavorable light, she is soon discredited by many and attacked (both emotionally and physically). But as the investigation perseveres, there is soon no use denying the truth.
Watson is so reserved to begin with, it is quite powerful to see the strain start to shatter her existence. It's a great performance in that it is completely underplayed and, therefore, all the more believable. Directed by Jim Loach (son of award winner Ken Loach), the film also boasts impressive support by David Wenham and Hugo Weaving. Both Weaving and Watson picked up actor accolades from Australian Film Critics Circle. As I watched the movie unravel fairly simply, I was sure I was going to give it four stars as a solid exploration of an unfathomable event. But then the magnitude and emotion really hit me in the concluding scenes and I realized just how well constructed the film actually was. With a minimum of histrionics, sentimentality, or moralizing, the screenplay and the actors really gets under your skin. And, in the end, I was deeply affected by "Oranges and Sunshine" because it didn't go for all the big expected moments. Understatement done extremely well! KGHarris, 6/12.
A restrained Emily Watson plays Humphreys, a woman who didn't ask to be thrust into a worldwide spotlight. In the beginning of the film, she is approached by a woman for help finding her parents. This is when she firsts hears about children being shipped to Australia. Initially reticent and disbelieving, she soon hears a corroboration of this tale. She starts to dig deeper and push further, working between the U.K. and Australia to start repairing families. It consumes her life and livelihood, but she is pushed by a sense of justice. As word gets out, she is a savior to many but an embarrassment to others. And as the unfolding allegations put many important figures in an unfavorable light, she is soon discredited by many and attacked (both emotionally and physically). But as the investigation perseveres, there is soon no use denying the truth.
Watson is so reserved to begin with, it is quite powerful to see the strain start to shatter her existence. It's a great performance in that it is completely underplayed and, therefore, all the more believable. Directed by Jim Loach (son of award winner Ken Loach), the film also boasts impressive support by David Wenham and Hugo Weaving. Both Weaving and Watson picked up actor accolades from Australian Film Critics Circle. As I watched the movie unravel fairly simply, I was sure I was going to give it four stars as a solid exploration of an unfathomable event. But then the magnitude and emotion really hit me in the concluding scenes and I realized just how well constructed the film actually was. With a minimum of histrionics, sentimentality, or moralizing, the screenplay and the actors really gets under your skin. And, in the end, I was deeply affected by "Oranges and Sunshine" because it didn't go for all the big expected moments. Understatement done extremely well! KGHarris, 6/12.
Buy Oranges and Sunshine (2010) Now
"Oranges and Sunshine" is a drama film based on the work of English social worker Margaret Humphreys who discovers the practice of British child deportation to Australia and Canada.Many of the children were sent to Australia following World War II and up until the early 1990s. These children often came from single parent homes or circumstances where their parents had difficulty supporting a family, and the children were placed in temporary government care, but unknown to their parents and relatives the children were sent overseas. This practice became known as the "Home Children" scandal.
The narrative exposes the misrepresentation of a new and wonderful life that the children were promised in Australia and how both the British and Australian Governments coordinated the activity, which wasn't disclosed to the public whilst the deportations were taking place.
The film draws attention to the lives that the children faced in Australia and the tenacious efforts of Humphreys to help them try and find resolution.
It is a quality movie with an impressive cast of British and Australian actors. Emily Watson (Margaret Humphreys), Hugo Weaving (Jack), and David Wenham (Len) provide a moving performance.
Nicholas R.W. Henning Australian Author
Read Best Reviews of Oranges and Sunshine (2010) Here
WOW ... This is an incredible, powerful, moving and gripping story (based on true events, and the book "Empty Cradles" by Margaret Humphreys).When you watch this movie you need to be in the mood for something like Schindler's list or the like. This is NOT lighthearted "entertainment".
In 1986 this story was uncovered by chance as one of these deported children returned (as an adult) to Great Britain desperately in search of who she really was, and happens upon social worker Margaret Humphreys. She tells Margaret that when she was a little girl she and hundreds of other kids were shipped from Great Britain to Australia, etc. Margaret finds her story hard to believe, and more or less blows it off because how could this happen en mass. Then another woman in a support group Margaret runs for adopted people mentions a lost brother who'd found her who claimed the same deportation story. Margaret begins looking into it and whoa tidal wave this didn't happen to just a FEW kids it happened to over 130,000 children! The kids aged 5-13 were shipped off, and told they had nobody and were nobody and were given an incredibly hard life (that's an understatement). This happened in the 1940's through the 1970's (I think I have that span right)... Decades after the news of this got out (in February 2010), Great Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown finally issued a full apology to those deported children and their families.
Margaret listens to each of the deported children's stories and their memories, for as much information as she can gather on them in order to help them find out who they are, and find their families. By doing this, she herself ends up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder just from absorbing their pain being strong for them. But she doesn't quit even when physically threatened. She is all they've got. Their stories are incredible even as understated as this movie was.
At the end of the movie it says that Margaret is STILL helping these deported children find out who they are today. She is incredible! (And so is her very supportive husband!)
This story is incredible! It will grab your heart for all its worth. I hope you watch it.
Want Oranges and Sunshine (2010) Discount?
It is always a jolt when a bit of buried history surfaces and makes us realize that the world is not all that sane as we would like to believe: the Chaos Factor raises its ugly head as in this screen adaptation by Rona Munro of Margaret Humphreys' true story book `Empty Cradles'. This is a very powerful film, all the more so because of the quality of acting and direction by Jim Loach who never lets the film run out of control despite the unveiling tragedy.The story is set in the 1980s where Nottingham, social worker Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson) is a social worker who encounters a middle aged woman who has traveled from Australia to find her birth parents. Margaret at first doesn't want to increase her workload with a wild tale of children having been deported form England by ship to be placed in orphanage work camps in Australia, but with the aid of her supportive husband Merv (Richard Dillane) she begins to investigate the uncovered secret, ultimately traveling to Australia where she meets the `unwanted children' as adults each longing to return to the UK to meet their families. The children when deported were as young as four to thirteen years old and had been told their parents either were dead or didn't want them and the representatives from the government promised them a safe home with `oranges and sunshine' in Australia. There are several `victims' as played by Hugo Weaving, David Wenham, Russell Dykstra and others who help personalize the unspoken crime until Margaret progresses to the point where she can hold the British government accountable for child migration schemes and reunite the children involved -now adults living mostly in Australia -with their parents in Britain. Though the deportations occurred from the 1940's through the 1970's it was only after Margaret Humphrey's 1994 book and then much later after when February 2010 Great Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown finally issued a full apology to those deported children and their families.
The supporting cast is uniformly excellent but it is the glowing performance by Emily Watson that makes this revelation of a film remain in the mind long after the credits explain how the solution played out in reality. This is a tough film but an important one and deserves a much larger audience than it has found. Grady Harp, November 12
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