Oranges and Sunshine

Oranges and Sunshine tells the true story of Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson), a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovered one of the most significant social scandals in recent times: The forced migration of children from the United Kingdom to Australia. For decades the British government had covered up the fact that 130,000 children in care had been sent abroad to commonwealth countries, mainly Australia.

Children as young as four had been told that their parents were dead, and were sent to children’s homes on the other side of the world. Many were subjected to appalling abuse. They were promised oranges and sunshine; they got hard labour and life in institutions. Margaret Humphreys has spent the past 25 years battling to reunite these divided families.

Veteran British television director Jim Loach discusses his first feature film with Al Jazeera’s head of entertainment, Amanda Palmer, and the FPS audience.

Nitin Sawhney and A Throw of Dice

British Indian composer Nitin Sawhney composed a score for A Throw of Dice

A Throw of Dice is a 1929 silent film by German-born director, Franz Osten. Based on an episode from the Indian epic The Mahabharata, it tells the story of two kings with a passion for gambling, who both fall for the beautiful Sunita.

Osten and actor/producer Himanshu Rai pulled off one of the most ambitious cinematic feats in history, drafting in 10,000 extras, 1,000 horses and scores of elephants and tigers for the location shoot in Rajasthan.

In 2006, British Indian composer Nitin Sawhney was asked to create a score for the film, which has since been performed all over the world, most recently at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival.

Sawhney gives FPS an insight into how he went about composing this complex and magical score – with a little help from his mother.

Miral

Miral follows the lives of four Palestinian women in the years following the creation of Israel. It is probably the most positive portrayal of the Palestinian perspective that mainstream cinema has ever seen – not the sort of film you might expect from Jewish-American director Julian Schnabel, whose mother was a passionate Zionist.

Written by Schnabel’s life partner, Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal, Miral draws on Jebreal’s own childhood at Dar Al-Tifel Institute in Jerusalem. A school and orphanage run by Palestinian socialite Hind Husseini, it used to provide refuge for thousands of children. Today there are just a handful of students, because of restricted movement in the Palestinian territories.

FPS talks to Julian Schnabel, Rula Jebreal and Indian actress Freida Pinto who, controversially, Schnabel cast in the title role.

Coming Attractions

FPS looks forward to some hotly anticipated Hollywood titles, including 3D sci-fi fantasy Thor, Morgan Spurlock’s latest corporate-bashing documentary The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, and The Beaver, starring Jodie Foster, Mel Gibson and a Cockney talking beaver.
 
This episode of The Fabulous Picture Show can be seen from Friday, April 22, 2011, at the following times GMT: Friday: 1930; Saturday: 1430; Sunday: 0430; Monday: 0830.