Oranges and Sunshine

A quietly angry, lightly fictionalized film detailing the systematic, organized UK government sanctioned deportation of up to 150,000 children, often as young as three to Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Zimbabwe.

In case you were under the assumption that this occurred in the dark ages, you would be wrong. The last cases are recorded in the late 1960's and early 1970's.

Emily Watson plays Margaret Humphreys the tireless Nottinghamshire social worker, who stumbled across an isolated case and then fought almost single-handedly to undercover the truth. Creating the "Child Migrants" trust by necessity to reunite lost families, sometimes decades later and in many cases too late.

The film is based on the the book "Empty Cradles" written by Humphreys to highlight the plight of the families and children involved and raise much needed funds.

Not only were children sent to countries alien to them, in the majority of cases without parental consent or even with the parents knowledge, many were told incorrectly their parents had died leaving them as orphans. Brothers and sisters were systematically split up and many endured harsh conditions, being treated as slave labour and subject to both mental and in many cases physical and sexual abuse, often at the hands of those supposedly charged with their care and well being.

As in many such cases, the Church and charitable organizations, when confronted with the proof of the neglect they oversaw, denied the charges and repeatedly attempted to frustrate attempts to drag the secret into the light.

Eventually in 2010 the UK Government formally apologised for the migrants treatment, finally acknowledging the mistakes that had been made.

Bearing in mind the shocking truths on display, does the film need to be any good? Directed by small screen veteran Jim Loach, this is a sympathetic account with quality naturalistic acting from all of the cast, in particular Watson and Hugo Weaving an adult sent as a child to Australia for "Sunshine and Oranges". Humphreys long suffering and supportive husband deserves a medal of some description as his wife continues to travel the world putting wrongs right or at least allowing closure, seemingly with little regard for her own safety, mental or physical health.

The film resembles "Magdalene Sisters", all the more effective for the lack of moralizing, preaching and sentimentality, apart from one off key line "You got my Mum for Christmas", the dialogue and acting are pitch perfect.

There are always concerns as to how fictionalized true stories are, certainly the facts are undeniable, all films compress time, alter circumstances and timelines. The most important factor is, does the film capture the spirit and feel, this does just that.

Summary

A stirring, largely truthful re-telling of an important story in our recent past, not an easy watch in parts but well worth the time to be aware of this travesty, compounded by the initial failure of anyone brave enough to take responsibility for what had occurred.

Watson embodies the spirit of Humphreys who quite rightly eventually received recognition for all her efforts.

Recommended

http://julesmoviereviews.blogspot.co.nz/

I can only give this a 10/10 due to the fact that i grew up with many of the fairbrigians and the Bindoon and Clontarf boys. I am a 62 year old and still socialise with some of these people. Fairbridge in Western Australia is situated just south of Perth and very close to Pinjarra. Every year they hold a Fairbridge festival that lasts for a whole weekend and hosts lots of activities including top groups and singers. I myself was once committed to a boys institution and met many of these kids that had ran away from Bindoon and other institutions that were abusive to them. Kingsley Fairbridge was not the abusive type and most Fairbrigians do not tell the same story as the Christian brothers torture. This movie portrays the story of Margaret Humphrey and her quest to find these -(now grown ups) to find their real parents. Only a very small portion found relatives. The goof here says that Margaret couldn't have moved to a stone house in Perth. Fremantle was the first landing and the first settlers along with convicts dug out a huge section of one of the hills which was limestone. Limestone was used for the building of almost -ALL the first buildings including the Fremantle prison. Many more houses and buildings in both Fremantle and Perth still stand today. I loved the movie and i believe it is very much close to the truth. A must to see.

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 form 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

Carronas' review could not be more wrong! She could not even get the directors name right. It's JIM not LEN Loach, and the rest of the review is just as inaccurate. I had no trouble following the story line even without any prior knowledge of the events. I had no trouble understanding where each scene was set, be it UK or Oz, it was perfectly clear which was which. The film stock helped to give that dated feel of the 1980's and this was further enhanced by the vehicles, furniture and fashions. The lack of dialogue in certain scenes (meeting the Brothers) added tension where words would have added nothing. This was an excellent film, well filmed and well acted. See it and enjoy.

Oranges and Sunshine – CATCH IT (B+) The film tells the story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham who uncovered the scandal of "home children", a scheme of forcibly relocating poor children from the UK to Australia and Canada. Margaret reunites estranged families and brings worldwide attention to the cause. Deported children were promised oranges and sunshine but they got hard labor and life of misery and sexual abuse in institutions such as Keaney College in Bindoon, Western Australia. (Wiki) Oranges and Sunshine is a sensitive subject matter which defiantly put Britain in Shame when Margaret Humphreys broke out the story in 80s. Emily Watson's portrayal of Margaret Humphreys' trouble to help the transported kids all the way to Australia is heart wrenching. The emotional turmoil she goes to work for them while managing her family is something really inspiring. Emily Watson is a great actress and no doubt she brings her emotional range to the real life role model. In supporting cast Hugo Weaving & David Wenhem did a fine job. Overall, it's a sensitive movie about a sensitive issue. Keep in mind its tear jerker, so keep a box of tissue.