The Arbor

Installation artist-turned-director Clio Barnard offers this unconventional profile of Andrea Dunbar, a talented British writer who emerged from a miserable upbringing only to inflict more of the same on others. A product of Yorkshire's public housing, Dunbar published her first play, The Arbor, at age 18 while staying in a women's shelter, viewing her profane, semi-autobiographical work as a form of reportage. However, her three children (two of whom are portrayed here by actors)—Andrew, Lisa (Christine Bottomley), and Lorraine (Manjinder Virk)—remember their hard-drinking mother as cold and inattentive. Their neighborhood seethed with racism, and Andrea wasn't particularly protective, says Lorraine, who's part Pakistani, adding “I can't forgive her.” All three were kids—from different fathers—when their 29-year-old mom died suddenly in 1990, and they went separate ways, with Lorraine's story continuing as she repeats her mother's mistakes with abusive boyfriends and teen pregnancies. Barnard alternates between Dunbar's family, television footage, a clip from Alan Clarke's adaptation of her work Rita, Sue and Bob Too, and a Barnard-orchestrated production of The Arbor, which is staged in the yard of the housing development where the playwright grew up. Although the film features actors, it still qualifies as a documentary, not only because the events really happened but also because the cast lip-syncs to actual interviews, a technique known as verbatim theater. This cinematic device isn't as strange as it sounds, although the subtitles come in handy for the thicker accents. Offbeat and memorable, this is recommended. (K. Fennessy)