The last film going to be shown as a part of Film Kicks will be seen at the Golden Cinema on Thursday, March 15, 2012 – 7:30 p.m. when Oranges and Sunshine is played.
The film is set in the 1980s when a social worker from Notting-‐ ham named Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson, Punch Drunk Love, Gosford Park) stumbles upon a shocking revelation that spans countries, governments and generations.
In her research she learns that thousands of children in the care of British Social Services were illegally and silently deported from the United Kingdom to Australia in the 1940s.
The film follows Humphreys struggles as she attempts to help the families reunite after years apart.
At the time many of these children were removed from the care of single mothers or homes that were deemed “unfit,” and the children were told that their parents were dead.
Afterwards the children were then popped on ships and sent across the ocean with the promise of “oranges and sunshine” only to be abandoned in church run orphanages where they were neglected, forced into hard labour, and brutally abused.
Blunt’s character is an advocate for the victims of this atrocity of justice.
In the film she travels to Australia and works closely with these individuals who were tragically influenced by what had happened and attempts to help them to find the answers that they so desperately seek. This first feature by UK director Jim Loach was an official selection of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Oranges and Sunshine co-stars Hugo Weaving and David Wenham.
