A rather touching film directed by Stephen Frears “Philomen”, shot in 2013 (the film has 4 Oscar nominations, received the prize for best adapted screenplay, the British Academy prize for best actress, two awards of the Venice C/F and several other nominations). In 2009, a documentary novel by Martin Sixsmith was published in England,
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A rather touching film directed by Stephen Frears “Philomen”, shot in 2013 (the film has 4 Oscar nominations, received the prize for best adapted screenplay, the British Academy prize for best actress, two awards of the Venice C/F and several other nominations). In 2009, a documentary novel by Martin Sixsmith was published in England, based on a real story from the life of an Irish woman Philomena Lee, from whom in 1955 a child was forcibly taken away and given up for adoption, and not someone but Catholic nuns did it, not only that they were actually engaged in the sale of children, but also in every possible way prevented the further reunification of children and mothers. And her father sent her to these nuns, thus punishing his daughter (her mother died when she was little). Throughout his life, Philomena Lee secretly searches for the chosen child, turning to the same nuns, but they answer that they know nothing about his fate. On the day of her son’s 50th birthday, she finally decides to reveal her secret to her daughter, and she, accidentally encountering the recently fired BBC journalist Martin Sixsmith (and he is a political journalist who worked in Russia for several years and wrote several books about her, such stories were not his profile), tells him about it, tries to interest him and asks for help in the search. At first, refusing, in the end, he agrees to help in the search, they go to America, and there it turns out that the hero not only achieved quite a lot in life, under the name of Michael Hess, given to him during adoption, he made a great political career, worked in the Reagan and Bush administrations, but already died of AIDS 9 years ago (he was gay). In the end, Philomena and Martin return to the same monastery, where, it turns out, the son himself turned in search of his mother and where he was buried according to his will, and the nuns responded to him in the same way as their mother – as it turns out, largely out of the personal malice and vindictiveness of the former abbot sister, who hated the “fallen” girls. Martin is filled with righteous anger and indignation, expresses it to the nuns in the presence of the priest, and Philomena herself forgives them, showing greater breadth of soul than the servants of God. The film is not as unambiguous as it may seem, and is also anti-clerical. I'm not going to stop here with a great acting - Judy Dench doesn't need that, Steve Coogan didn't play the journalist either. The characters of the characters, absolutely heterogeneous, and the development of their relationships are perfectly conveyed.
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