Oranges and Sunshine

Movie: Oranges and Sunshine

Genre: drama

Synopsis: This movie is strictly based on fact – the events really happened.  In England in the last 1980’s, Margaret (Emily Watson) is a social worker.  Margaret accidently stumbles on a horrific series of deeds perpetrated by the governments of England and Australia.  Beginning in the 1940’s and continuing up to 1967, the British government took 120,000+ children from English orphanages and group homes and shipped them off to Australia.  Many of these children had parents who sought to re-claim them – only to be told the children had been adopted -  they were never told that they had been sent to Australia.  In Australia, these children became virtual slaves to the groups (frequently church groups) who took them in.  To cap it off, the children were either told their parents did not want them – or that their parents had died.

When Margaret realizes the scope and horror of what the governments have done, she embarks on a one-woman crusade to (1) help these now-adult kids to find their families and (2) to hold the governments accountable.  It was decades before the British government finally – and publically – owned up to what they did.

My two cents: The story that this movie covers is absolutely amazing.  The stories of what the orphans were subjected to is beyond shocking.  Just as awful is how they have suffered their entire lives from what was done to them.  Margaret actually suffers Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because she has been exposed to so many of these horror stories.  If you see this movie, bring some tissue with you because there are some pretty emotional scenes.  I had read about this a few years ago, but seeing it dramatized really hit me hard.  I still cannot understand how a government could do something like this to children.

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