Oranges and Sunshine

Once in a while you see a movie which does not 'leave you' for days. This is one of those movies. Our local Art Gallery brings in a movie a month for four months from the Toronto Film Festival (oh I do hope I can attend it next year) and this month the movie was Oranges and Sunshine. This compelling drama retells social worker Margaret Humphreys' played by Emily Watson, real life crusade to help displaced adults in Australia discover their true identities. The 'secret' which is exposed during this wonderful movie is that 130,000 children were sent from England to Australia from the 1950's through to the 1970's. Imagine, while we are working on our lives, children were being deported 130,000 of them.
It was by chance, sort of, that Margaret begins to realize children were sent to Australia and she is able to create support in visiting Australia to check out if there are others and there is. Most where told there parents were dead, some were used as cheap help and of course the Catholic Church is involved. Margaret Humphrey journey brings her to face danger of reprisals both physically and verbally, away from her family, where her husband is totally supportive and behind her as she travels between England and Australia. She also makes many friends with these adult displaced children. She finds out the parents, often a single mother, were told that the children were adopted by wonderful parents. David Wenham, whose voice is recognized as the actor from the movie Australia, plays an interesting role in this movie. Also one man tells the story of being separated from his sister saying this man came and asked him "do you want to go and live where there is Oranges and Sunshine". He was eight, living in an orphanage in England. Instead there was deprivation and abuse.
It took years before England and Australia acknowledged these deportations. The true victims were these adults, many of them abused as youngsters with no help to cope with their inner demons. At least there was a Margaret Humphrey who had compassion and a cause to bring to light another government cover up - this one relating to children.
Four out of Five stars