Blue Skies and Sorrow

Turning up late to see a preview of 'Sunshine and Oranges', I found I could only get a seat a row from the screen. Urged on by a friend, I took it and sat through the movie with the action going on right up my nose so to speak. But I did it and I would do it again.

This is a film you SHOULD see, not only because it will give you insight into a sorrowful time in our history but because you will meet extraordinary actors and the wonderful heroine of this movie.'Should See' usually means boring and didactic but not here. The story is told with such finesse that the unrolling of events comes creeping up on you quietly and stealthily as it does in real life.

Two of the best performances are from Hugo Weaving and David Wenham. They both play walking wounded of the type I have never seen either play before. To see Hugo Weaving as a sun burnt Aussie is a revelation and David Wenham's return to his homeland is about as close as you want to get to sobbing in a theatre. They revolve around English actress Emily Watson who according to director Jim Loach, had been stung by criticism of her portrayal of Jacqueline du Pré and refused to meet Margaret Humphreys, the social worker from Nottingham who uncovered the terrible truth about child migration.

There are few people who can convey passionate integrity without being off putting. Emily Watson does and she has a good model, even if she didn't meet her. Margaret Humphreys was at the screening and she has a sort of Madonna quality - radiant humanity mixed with great good sense.

If you have a piece of music you think of as expressing beauty, then have a look at the faces of the children who were sent over the oceans and try to reconcile yourself to the truth of what happened to them once they got to their destination. Pharaoh in his rage could not have invented anything more awful.