wisewebwoman

It starts off slowly and you wonder where it is all going. But I am so glad I stuck with it as it builds to a phenomenal climax.

The cast are fantastic with Hugh Bonneville, Ben Miles and Alex Kingston And really shows off Hugh Bonnevilles's slightly befuddled expressions and Miles being a predatory nightmare.

Karen Gillan is outstanding in a challenging role. You never know how to take her until the very end. A hugely difficult role and perfectly executed.

I absolutely hated her at the beginning and my sympathies were all in the wrong places. And then everything starts to shift and I wound up actually crying. An absolutely stellar performance from all the cast. The writing and direction were excellent.. Douglas and Madeline are brilliant and well worth any awards for their performances.

8/10 Britbox.

Well done docudrama told in 4 crisp episodes. Corby, a town like many others, is affected by corporations in collusion with local councils destroying their town and lives with their toxic poisons. And rarely brought to account by most.

When the women of the town band together after they realize their babies, conceived around the same time, have similar birth defects they wake up to the possibility that some substance has affected their fetuses. And they hire a lawyer to get justice.

Jodie Whittaker gives a brilliant as the main activist along with a great supporting cast including Brendan Coyle as the corrupt councillor. Aimee Lou Wood is heartbreaking as the bereft mother. And Roy Kinnear is stellar as the compassionate solicitor.

Just the right length at 4 tight episodes.

9/10 Netflix.

I grew up with the anger of my grandfather who was the child of a famine survivor. He said, at one time to me. As we walked of an early morning to his rabbit snares: "Always remember Girleen, you walk on the blood and bones of those gone before you." He was referring the famine and all those hwo died in the fields and on the side of the road.

This film spoke to me in so many ways. The famine as portrayed was a backdrop to the protagonist, who returns from fighting oversea to the devastation of his family, the abysmal starvation all around him as he searches for his mother and his brother and finds they are dead, his mother for refusing the soup, offered to the Irish if they converted to Protestantism. (Known as soupers by those who refused it). He goes on a tour of revenge.

The photography was stunning the red uniforms of the British soldiers vivid against the bleak landscape and grey haunted features of the starving peasants.

The acting was flawless and the script minimalist but powerful.

It will remain with me and I will watch it again.

A great cast and authentic with the Irish language through much of it. Some Connemara scenes along with Galway.

On Acorn.

Haunting.

8/10.