Presented at Berlinale 2026, Sophie Heldman’s new period drama The Education of Jane Cumming is set in Edinburgh in 1810, at the height of the Scottish Enlightenment. It follows two teachers, Jane Pirie (Flora Nicholson) and Marianne Woods (Clare Dunne), who run an exclusive girls’ boarding school. Their lives are upended when a wealthy aristocrat, Lady Cumming Gordon (the excellent Fiona Shaw), enrolls two of her granddaughters, along with Jane Cumming (Mia Tharia), her ‘illegitimate’ 15-year-old granddaughter from India. Jane is the daughter of Lady Cumming Gordon’s son – a Scottish military man – and an Indian woman he met while stationed there.
When Pirie and Woods are left to care for the young Jane over the summer break, the dynamic between the three begins to change. Personal and professional boundaries blur, and Jane becomes increasingly attached to her teachers – an intimacy that proves explosive when the new term begins.
There is much to admire in Heldman’s film. It offers a compelling exploration of desire, community, and discrimination, while refusing easy moral certainties. Jane Cumming is treated with open contempt by her cousins and grandmother, and the film lays bare the daily humiliation she endures, suffering from racism and isolation. But it also shows how that pain is redirected. In her longing for her grandma’s approval, Jane attempts to turn her suffering outward, betraying the very women who had initially offered her comfort. The Education of Jane Cumming examines the cycle of discrimination, with Jane maliciously accusing the two teachers of being lovers who haveengaged in sexual acts in front of their pupils.
The film’s cast and crew bring this fictionalized retelling of a true story vividly to life. Flora Nicholson – who co-wrote the screenplay with director Sophie Heldman – is especially impressive as Jane Pirie, beautifully capturing her repressed desire for Clare Dunne’s Marianne, her fragile sense of self, and the devastation that follows when everything she has built is stripped away in court by a panel of bigoted men. The screenplay is equally sensitive in its treatment of Jane Cumming’s perception of the ‘unlawful’ but tender relationship between the two teachers – a relationship that fascinates her even as it clashes with her desperate need to belong to the family network dominated by her grandmother.
The Education of Jane Cumming can be read as a story about the making and unmaking of community, a feminist portrait of women trying to carve out space in a patriarchal society, and, of course, a meditation on racism and homophobia. These strands are drawn together by an assured but devastating screenplay and Heldman’s confident direction, both of which commit to treating these real-life women justly. Kate Reid’s cinematography is also outstanding, capturing Scotland in all its varied beauty – from austere architecture and the school’s bucolic gardens to the vast, haunting Scottish coastline.
This fictionalized retelling of a largely forgotten court case stands as a moving homage to Jane Pirie, Marianne Woods, and Jane Cumming, women whose lives were defined, in very different terms, by the constraints placed on their freedom. Above all, it tells a story that still resonates, reminding us that not as much has changed in the past 200 years as we might hope. Recommended.
Why should public libraries add this movie to their shelves?
The Education of Jane Cumming would be a great addition to public library collections because it brings an unknown historical court case to wider audiences, addressing themes that remain deeply relevant today, like racism, homophobia, systemic discrimination, and the policing of women’s lives.
Is this drama a good fit for campus screenings?
Yes, it is an excellent fit as the film could open up interdisciplinary discussion across history, gender studies, film studies, law, sociology, and postcolonial studies.
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