In the middle of New Year’s Day, when many or even most of the male persons in the country were watching football, a friend and I slipped off to Mariemont to see Philomena.
It is a wonderful and well-made film, set in Ireland in the 1950s, of a young woman who (in a nun’s words) ‘lowered her knickers’, got pregnant, had the baby, and then was held in bondage / servitude to pay off the debt to the sisters for 4 years – who also gave her baby away for adoption. The young woman felt the crushing weight of her sin and accepted the punishment for 50 years. Then she could not. So she told her secret to her daughter, who chanced to meet a journalist who had lost his job in such a way that the entire world knew – and the journalist and the mother set out on a journey to find Anthony.
What a film – what an ending! It’s on lots of awards list, so you need to see it now.
P. S. and when I got home, and picked up the next mystery on my pile – I find that it is set in the same time frame – and has the same issue at its core! Amazing. Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (John Banville). I’ll report on that when I finish it.