Watch Oranges and Sunshine For Free

You won't be disappointed!

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Oranges and Sunshine (film) & Anne Hamilton-Byrne (Messiah) ...a correlation ???There appears to me ...a correlation with the events in this film and the cult of & Anne Hamilton-Byrne. Anne Hamilton-Byrne She (Anne) gathered young boys and girls and raised them as her own on a property in Lake Eildon in central Victoria. Some children were obtained through questionable adoptions, others were born to cult members and some were even handed over by compliant sect parents. The identically dressed children, with bleached blonde hair shaped into the same bob, were allegedly bashed, starved and injected with LSD by Hamilton-Byrne and other cult leaders in terrifying sect initiation rituals. Oranges and Sunshine Set in 1980s Nottingham, social worker Margaret Humphreys holds the British government accountable for child migration schemes and reunites the children involved -- now adults living mostly in Australia -- with their parents in Britain.

A gripping film, which tells a story of child migrants deported from the UK to Australia. Margaret, the film's heroine reunites estranged families and brings worldwide attention to the cause.The fact that the story was based on true events from the 1980s, with graphic tales of child abuse and social injustice, leaves me with a rather raw sense of disgust. Whilst the film is brilliant, I didn't actually enjoy watching it. It is the type of film that makes you think about all the wrongs in this world. But perhaps that is what makes it so brilliant. Worth a watch, but don't say I didn't warn you.

ORANGES AND SUNSHINE is an angry movie, that gains much of its power from the unemotional way in which director Jim Loach tells the story. There are no scenes of overt violence; rather he lets the middle- aged victims of government policy in the mid-Fifties tell their stories to Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson) in harrowing detail.In the immediate post-war period, extending right up to 1970, the British government transported "orphans" - as they euphemistically put it - to Australia with the promise of uninterrupted sunshine and oranges every day (hence the film's title). None of the children were "orphans"; rather they were the illegitimate offspring of women who had "got into trouble" and had their babies forcibly taken away from them by the authorities. The policy of enforced transportation took these unwanted children off the government's (and the charities') hands.ORANGES AND SUNSHINE tells the stories of these children, all of whom have now grown up. Many of them experienced almost unbearable horrors during their formative years; and until Margaret gives them the chance, they have had little or no opportunity to talk about these experiences. Set in the late Eighties, the film depicts Margaret's struggles both to find the children's natural parents, as well as persuade some of the authorities involved to admit their culpability all those years ago.The action shifts between Nottingham in the United Kingdom and various parts of Australia. As portrayed by Watson, Margaret comes across as an indomitable yet sympathetic figure, who never gives up on her clients, despite many attempts to dissuade her. The clients, who include Jack (Hugo Weaving) and Len (David Wenham) find it difficult to come to terms with their pasts, even four decades later. One sequence is particularly harrowing where Margaret and Len visit the Brotherhood in the wilds of Australia; their impressions are intercut with interviews from other victims about what happened to them while staying with the Brothers when they were children. Out of sight, out of mind provided a convenient pretext for many of them to suffer the most unimaginable indignities.ORANGES AND SUNSHINE ends with a series of black-and-white archive footage of some of the real-life children smiling innocently at the camera as they boarded the ships bound for Australia. Their wide- eyed expectations of the adventure to follow contrast starkly with what really happened. We know a lot about what happened to prisoners during the Nazi period; what makes this film so powerful is that many of these children experienced similar treatment at the hands of representatives of so-called 'democratic' nations.

A technically well made film of a deeply shameful episode in the history of UK government, social workers and charities, most of whom have yet to learn the necessity of transparency or accountability. But the central character of Margaret is portrayed as a self satisfied, self righteous prig. Was she really like this? When accused by a female receptionist of lying, she states categorically "I do not tell lies, ever." Really? She is the only human being in history to achieve this feat.It was exactly that arrogant, delusional attitude which helped lead to the problem this film shows, and it's still appallingly common amongst the so-called professionals in the social work and policing fields. (A recent example in the UK was the widespread ignoring of teenage girls who got caught up in sex rings.) Margaret never displays inappropriate feelings and acts entirely in accordance with 21st century mores - not those of the 1980s. Ultimately, this is a Disneyfied version of what must have been a much more problematic and complex story. It feels nothing like reality.For example: the meeting at the Christian Brothers' house is presented with The Great Saint Margaret sitting on high in judgement over the inferior beings who are just trying to eat a simple meal. We are not told which, if any, of those men committed any of the heinous crimes against children many years previously. This is dreadful film making and very dishonest. I cannot believe that this woman could have been so self-denying - it would have made her unbearable to live with.